Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1902-09-11

| NOtullHH WV tpiltiOi VI lliC u uolS Nv
federal legislation and he has ignored
them. He has been given to under
stand that if he insists upon telling
the people that trusts can be made
subservient to law he may have to
fight for the presidency in 1904 He
has replied that his attitude toward
the trusts was taken without thought
Of its political effect, but because he
believed it to be right, and that he
! intends to maintain it regardless Of
his own political future.
Open expression of the powerful
antagonisms that the president has
aroused by his trust policy has been
confined until now to the scarcely
yelled attacks upon it and him which
have appeared in the trust organs
among republican newspapers. The
arst gun Of the republican anti
Roosevelt campaign is being loaded
and shotted ready to be fred when
the republican state convention
meets in Saratoga.
Senator Platt and the financiers
whom he represents propose to deny
TO the president in the state platform
the Endorsement for the presidential
nomination in 1904 that has been &C.
corded him by the republican state
conventions Of California, Missouri,
Pennsylvania, Iowa and Delaware.
They intend to go further and with
hold from him the support of the
party organ in his own state by
shutting over the trust question with
a few glittering generalities, thus
leaving him to fight his battles alone.
This plan to place the president in
the position of being at variance with
party will not 60 unchallenged
Among the delegates to the repub-
Iican state convention will be men
who cannot be made to stand idly by
while slight is being put upon him.
They propose to defend him by every
means in their power, and it is GER
tain that no victory will be won over
him by default. Whether the presi-
dent shall be sustained or overrid-
len at Saratoga depends upon the at
titude taken in the convention by
Gov. Odell, whose attitude toward
the president has been generally an
tagonistic. While it is generally I'M
lerstood among republicans in this
state that the governor is opposed
to the Endorsement of Mr.. Roosevelt
for the nomination in 1904, and that
he wants the trust issue to be sub
ordinated in the platform, he has
DOT yet definitely shown his hand.
Mr.. Roosevelt will not ask Senator
Platt to favor his Endorsement in the
convention. He does not regard it
as fitting that the president should
make such a request. The demand
will be made, however, by his friends
and it will be coupled with warning
that the occupant of the white house
cannot be ignored, even to please Mr..
Morgan, without creating danger of
the wreck of the republican machin-
Try responsible for the affront.
Should the threatened cantast over
Ie Endorsement involve the acrl-
mony that now seems inevitable, II
the trust defenders carry out their
plan the breach in the party ranks
could not be confined to New York
state. 1t will divide republicans all
over the country for the president
Or for the trusts. with results to the
party fortunes that cannot be pre-
licted. When the president began to
outline his plan for dealing with
harmful monopolies in his New En-
yland tour the trust leaders told him
hat unless he abandoned his posi-
ton he would bring disaster upon
the party. They assured him that
his ideas were impracticable and
that nothing could be done by legis-
ation to curb the trusts without
,ausing the reaction of business in
tcrests and threatening the continu-
,nce of prosperity, which, they told
him. should be put forward as the
leading issue of the campaign.
Finding him intractable the presi-
lent's opponents in his trust policy
made It clear to him, after his re-
turn to Oyster Bay. that he was seri-
ously endangering his chances OF
nomination by refusing to be guided
BY them. To this the president an
swered that II by recanting he could
make certain of the nomination,
while to continue as he had begun
would absolutely prevent him from
becoming the candidate. he would
nevertheless refuse to recant.
With full knowledge Of the posi-
BILE consequences to himself, he start
ed on his southern tour, determined
to follow his own convictions and
leaving the county to Judge between
him and his adversaries. He has de-
ivered his challenge and the state
convention will show whether it has
been accepted.