Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1903-09-04
Washington letter

sept. 1-Sl0ce MI. ROOSEVELT be-
came President Of the United States
and hasbeen inthe limelight, the people
Of the country who. want to keep up
with the times and keep theme elves
posted on all the things that can be
said for and against a man in pub
lie life, have been reading the many
books that have been written by the
fecund pen of the man whom now
occupies the highest Office in the ma
ton. Some of the students Of this city
have found that he has had very few
kind words to say Of any man who
ever occupied a high place in this
country that on the contrary he has
lambasted the life out of most of
them. Take for instance, his opinion
of Thomas Jefferson, expressed in his
"Naval War of 1872 in volume XII,
page 1913, of that work from the pen
Of TheodoreR oose welt. Be was intem-
perate enough to say that Mr.. Jeffer-
son twas perhaps the most incapable
executive that ever flied the presi-
Dental chair" That seems to be
pretty tough on the author of the Dec
~laration Of Independence, the man who
acquired the Louisiana territory. who
was twice president of the United
States, both times elected by ballots
and not by bullets, who was the
founder of the University of Virginia,
and whose teachings ta7e been the
bulwark Of popular government as
against the rule of the classes. Mr..
Roosevelt seems not only to be an
iconoclast, but of late years he seems
to have become a painfully pragmatc
pre- acher. He defends and proclaims
the automatic at the slightest provo
cation. He is showing a reprehen-
sible tendency to lecture the public
on self.evident propositions, and to
do it with q suspicion of sensational
purposes, as, notably, in his warnings
against r%ace-suicide and his recent
sermon on decent living. The people
Of this country, if I am any Judge of
every day human nature, do not like
to be lectured. They think they know
what they want and how to get it
when they want it. This is one of
the reasons why Grover Cleveland
lost popularity while in the White
house. If MI. Roosevelt will continue
in his present course he will very
aptly illustrate the point Of "Tom "
Reeds sarcastic saying: "What I like
about Roosevelt is his enthusiasm
over his own discovery ef the Ten
Commandments.
There is some rather severe criti-
cism Of the president here in. political
circles in the national capital on &C.
count of the recent naval review.
That review ordered by the president
to be held practically in his backys r
in Oyster Bay, partook very much Of
the autocratic methods of the Gear or
the Kaiser. No previous president
ever ordered the ships Of the: American
Navy to come to his home in order to
review them and make q war-like
speech to the officers and men of the
navy. That review. for which there
was no need or warrant, except to
make q hoodlum holiday for the inha-
bitants Of Oyster Bay and: vicinity,
cost the taxpayers of the country not
less than fifty thousand dollars for gun
powder burned in salutes to the Com
mander- int Chief Of the American
navy. He may next take q notion
that he wants to review the American
army. If he does it will cost the
: people not lees than a halt million
dollars to concentrate the troops for
the review. The people need not be
surprised at anything.
The postofice department investiga-
ton seems to have petered cut COM
pletely. II anything is doing at the
big pile on Pennsylvania avenue no
man car find it out. Since the statute
of limitations let out so many who
ought to be wearing stripes, it seems
to have paralyzed the energies of the
Investigators. Although the grand
jury in Brooklyn indicted George ".
Beavers for completely I'm the frauds
and populations in the postofice de.
partment, no attempt has ever. been
made to apprehend him to the bar OF
justice. It is believed here that the
reason for this apathy on the part Of
the government officials lie that
Beavers is another one of those
"Temple :.pullere," and the powers
that be are not hunting for that kind
of game. It is q safe wager that the
last has been heard of sensational de.
velopments In the postof3ce investiga.
ton. It looks as though the interio,
department would now become the
center of activity in the ecalawae
hunting line, but nothing will wei bf
done there until there ia q change o1