The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1902-01-01
CITY OFFICIAL PAPER.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1, 1902.
THE PRESIDENTS MISTAKE.


Not since his first entry into public
life has Mr.. Roosevelt performed an act
in either his private or official capacity
that has cost him as many friends as has
his reprimand of General Miles in the
Schley Sampson controversy.
While General Miles may have techni-
cally violated a department rule in ex-
pressing sympathy for Schley, mild
reprimand from the head of the war
department would have been sufficient
without violent and undignitied out
break on the part of the president.
Admiral Benham and other officers
who have seen tit to criticise Schley
have done so with impunity and no cen
sure of them has been expressed by
either the war department or the presi-
dent. General Miles has been deservedly
popular since his attack on the "em-
balmed beef scoundrels and he is pos
sessed of fearless sense of Justice that
the people had hoped to find in the new
president.
Mr. Roosevelt has evidently forgotten
the round robin incident when he him
self violated the same department rule
under similar provocation.
Had the president seen fit to have
taken his stand with Dewey and Miles,
the whole band of villitiers and traduc-
ers of Admiral Schley would have been
put to flight, but the president chose to
stand with Long, who has been Schley' s
chief prosecutor, and by so doing Mr..
Roosevelt, in the estimation of his
friends, has fallen nightly.
After the official reprimand had been
administered to General Miles by direc-
ton of the president the general had
gone to the white house to talk the mat
ter over in a friendly spirit with the
president, believing that he had been
unjustly dealt with, but the official rep
rimand was mild in comparison to that
which he received from the president
himself. In the presidents ante-room
the general found a dozen prominent
men who were waiting to see the chief
executive, and short time after his
arrival the president came out of his
private Office and the hush which fol
lowed his entrance made the scene
which followed all the more startling
Catching sight of General Miles the
president rushed up to him with flushed
face and violent gestures, and shaking
his finger in the generals face exclaimed
in an angry tone: Il will have you un
derstand, sir, that l will not allow you
to criticise executive and departmental
acts. will not stand it. l don't car,
who you are" And after turning ava,
he again turned and shaking his clincheC
hand furiously at the aged general ex
claimed, IN show you" with which h
turned his back upon the astonishet
general and the interview was at an enc
Those who witnessed the incident agre
substantially as to its details, and as n
denial has been published the abov
version is probably correct. The pres
dents petulant anger is all the NOR
noticeable because of the just and dig
nifed manner in which the office wa
filed by his predecessor.
Mr.. Roosevelt has been popular bt
cause the people believed him to be bot
fair and fearless, but few exhibition
such as the Miles incident will cost hir
his popularity and cause him to b
classed with the Long and Sampso
snobs.