The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-12-19
LEWIS ON ROOSEVELT.
How Eastern Influences Plan
Presidents Downfall.

interests which are threatening to de-
feat the nomination of President
ROOSEVELT in the Chicago convention
next June. The paper is entitled,
Perils"
Mr.. Lewis points out that there are
politicians who may be for Roosevelt
on the surface but who are secretly
aWaislng an opportunity to oppose him.
1t is suspected that some Kansans are
IN this same class. They are not on
good terms with the president and
would undoubtedly secretly rejoice in
his defeat. In his paper Mr.. Lewis
says:
There turks in the Washington
long-graSS plenty of opposition 10
President Roosevelt. For that matter,
there is always plenty of opposition
to every ambitious official, be he pres
ident or path-master. The word
| Turks is used above advisedly. The
giant per cent of those opposed to the
White House return of President
Roosevelt lie extremely dumb and low.
They consider their own interests,
these men of opposition, and pause to
note which way the cat will hop before
they unmask their sentiments. At
present they only hope for President
ing to work for it. Even those who
openly declare against him are guard
ed in all they do and say. Their en-
nifty is never bitter, never goes to the
point denunciatory. never carries them
and their fortunes beyond Republican
recall.
President Roosevelt intends Panama
to become an argument in the mouths
of his friends when they go forth to
name him and elect him as his own
successor. With all the power in his
| hands-and no one has yet measured
the power of a president-he will push
the Panama business to it's finish BY
| this or that he means to split the 18TH
I hot nor nl nr1n CHI
are to translate themselves from one
ocean to the other without troubling
Cape Horn; upon that marine miracle
he stands resolved. And it is likewise
current that, in Difference to the proph-
ecy of a long ago secretary Of state,
President Roosevelt is determined that
both banks of the canal shall be part
| of the coast line of this country. Such
decision would be much in keeping with
the ROoSeVeltian character, which is
wholly American, and it's carrying out
by no means inconsistent with Roose-
yeltian tastes, which never fail to Ia
vor steps of bold defiance. President
Roosevelt has adopted that old ringing
tag of the sixteen-to-onerS, and will
| if necessary-dig the Panama canal
without waiting for the consent of any
other nation.
1.-THE propriety of the canal no one
railways, was ever heard to deny. But
to the last crowned head of them, ev-
cry European ruler, and even the elect
ed one of France. has been and Is OPP
posed. They believe with Sir Walter
Raleigh that he who holds the IsthmuS
of Darien holds the keys to the world,
and are solicitous that no such lock-
opener shall hang at the girdle or IN
Gle Sam. For years, indeed, since ever
4 the earliest proposal on the American
part was made to dig the canal, Ger
many, France, England and many an
other of Europe have intrigued and
wrought against US. Especially nave
thew bribed Isthmian officials to invent
delay where they might not stubbornly
refuse. And Europe still stands ready
to keep US from our ditch digging.
Much may be done with bribery IN the
tropics, where the very heat, making
honest labor all but impossible, would
seem to sap the integrity OF men.
Equatorial venality has been provero
since time was, and the temperate mas
paid brides to the torrid zone IN every
age.
how American interest, and for that
matter American right, has been WITH
stood in the Panama instance by Euro
money in the dark. Being rather
Scipio than a Fabius, he, if need be.
will oppose fnesse with force and dig
the canal in the teeth of Europe.
For all their conservatism and that
decent forbearance wherewith they in
vest themselves and their actions,
| those in open hostility to President
Roosevelt will fight tooth and nail
| against the administration in its poll
cies Of Panama. They will have
double inspiration. They would like the
presidency for one of themselves-Sen-
ator Hanna, il his health hold fast;
also, they would prefer to pleasure
those great railways which hook ocean
to ocean, and which smell, in a canal
across the isthmus, a stab at freight
rates and a slash at railroad incomes.
Yes, indeed, there will be big battle
waged against President Roosevelt and
/ his adventurous plans for Panama;
and the railroads, by every trick of
politics and every artifice that money
and recruit the forces that confront
him
STRENGTH OF THE OPPOSITION.
sit should be observed that among
majority of the battle battered leaders
| of his party President Roosevelt is not
a favorite The Hannas and the Platts
and the Quays do not rejoice in him
One might have said the Depews, but
such as the junior senator from New
York are mere passengers aboard the
| Republican ship and have no enroll
ment among it's officers. They are pas
sengers: they are entitled to state
room; but they have no right to issue
an order, and would be stared at If
| thev did.
President Roosevelt is aware of his
unpopularity with those whose names
are furnished above. Nor is he dismay-
ed thereby; he aims to go over the
heads of such and reach the rank and
hle-as it were the peasantry of party.
And if rumor's tongue wags with half
truth If would seem that he makes no
! failure. Newcomers from without, and
particularly those who arrive from the
west or the rural regions of the north
and east, report him strong in the es-
| TEEN of what the great Lincoln called
| the common people His unbuckled
manner where humble men encounter
| him. his trick to recall a face and
prompt bluntness with first names, have
| given him vogue among the prfvates of
| the Republican party.
THAT good natured familiarity which
teaches President Roosevelt to hail his
unframed callers as Jack and BIZ and
Ben and then drag them in to luncheon