Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1901-10-18
WASHINGTON Letter
(From our Regular Correspondence


Warrington, Oct. 14.-President
Roosevelt entered the White House,
no doubt, with some very praiseworthy
ideas as to what would be his course
in the disposition OF Presidential pa
tronage, and the ward.healer and the
machine worker had no place in his
calculations. Mr.. Roosevelt had been
civil service commissioner, and he had
at least formulated ideals, ideals which
had been well-nigh shattered after his
acceptance of the governorship of Now
York, at the hands of the machine, it
is true, but ideals still and ideals which
he believed that, having become presi-
dent, almost in spite of the machine,
he could put into practice. He is rapid
ly being undeceived. Every day it is
borne in upon him that he is neither
free man nor the servant of the peo-
pie, but the service of a mighty and
constituencies power known as 1.-The
Repu blican Machine
He was hardly seated in the Presi-
dental chair when Platt, the represen-
tative of all that is partisan and obiec-
tionable in republican politics in Mr..
Roosevelt's own state, came to Wash
ington and laid down the law and after
leaving him, made use of an expression
which Mr.. Roosevelt, the Civil Service
Commissioner, would have quickly re-
pudiated. He said 1.-The President
knows who deserves recognition in
New York." and this of the Roosevelt,
who, when be was Commissioner, had
said that ''He who rewards political
services with government patronage, is
worse that he who offers a bribe be-
cause he is stealing from the whole
people,"
Every day Mr.. Roosevelt receives a
long line of republican Congressman
and machine workers who demand
recognition, in the shape of Presi-
Dental patronage, as a reward for the
political services of their constituents
and henchmen. And the price OF re-
fusal is the forfeiture of a second term.
Mr.. Roosevelt is clean man and he
has ideals, but he is fast learning that
republican methods and ideals are in
compatible, that the republican party
has gained the ascendency, not by SER
wing the people but by hood winking
them, that it wins its victories, not by
appeals to American intelligence, but
by tempting cupidity through the opera
ton of perfectly organized machine.
Rumor is still rife concerning the
Isthmian Canal treaty, but all is con-
lecture. 1 have it on no less an au-
thority than a member of the Cabinet
that the salient points OF the treaty
with great Britain have been agreed
upon and that the treaty will be COM
pleted and submitted to the Senate as
soon as Congress assemblies. The Cabi-
net Minister who will not permit the
use of his name, expresses the belief
that the treaty will be perfectly salts
factory to the Senate and the people.
He further states that everyone in the
White House and the State department
has been given notice that the FRESH
dent will be seriously dispIeased If the
details are made public by anyone 9TH
er than himself.
1t is well understood in inner circles
that the President finds himself in a
serious dilemma in regard to his re-
concentrations to Congress, concern
ing our relations with Cuba. He ap-
preciates thoroughly how essential to
Cuban goodwill and to Cuban pros
perity is the admission to the United
States, free of duty, of Cuban sugar.
On the other hand, any such recon-
mendation would bring about his head
a swan of indignant protests from the
beet sugar producers of the North and
West and from the cane-sugar produc
ers of the South, that South in which
he has strong hopes of building up
brand new white mans" republican
party. There the matter stands.
The Schley Court of Inquiry still
holds daily sessions. Judge Advocate
LemIy announces that he will be
ready to rest his case by the mid
die of this week and Mr.. Rayner es
Inmates that it will be the middle of
November before the defense is con-
cluded. 1t does not appear to have
dawned upon the Navy Department
that if Judge advocate Lemly were to
prove bis case against Admiral Sehley
the whole Bureau of Navigation would
stand proven of the gravest direliction
of duty and deserving of the severest
censure for not having long ago
brought Schley before court martial
on the charges CT cowardice and insub-
ordination.
The Hemp Inquiry committee has
to Nov IS. The evidence is
practically in and it will. it is presum-
ed. have little more to do than render
a decision when it reconvenes.
There is q rumor af1oat that Ambas
sador Choate, who has started for
ostensiblY to confer with
the President in regard to the canal
treaty, comes at the Presidents re-
quest and that he will bring with him
his resignation, ex-senator Wolcott, OF
Colorado. being named as his success
sor. The only information which the
most persistent Interrogation can elicit
from the State Department is thai
nothing is known of the change. The
fact that Mr.. Roosevelt is a decided
positivist, or as bis Western friends
would say hustler and that Mr..
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