Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-02-24
ANYTHING TO BEAT ROOSEVELT,

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A recent editorial in the Wall street
Journal frankly announces that THE
large financial interests In Wall street
are bitterly opposed to President
Roosevelt's continuation in office, and
are determined to defeat him, if pos
sible, In the convention, and if not in
the convention. at the polls" The edi-
tor then adds: 1T is becoming clear
that the official Wall street candidate
has already been selected on the demo-
cratic side 1t is probably fair 70
! say that Judge Parker is the man with
whom Wall street hopes to beat Mr..
Roosevelt. Anything to beat
Roosevelt is clearly the motto of the
/ powerful financial interests in the
tstreet so far as 1904 is concerned
Coming from the editorial columns of
a journal published solely for the pat
ronage of the men of Wall street, this
announcement would appear to be reck-
! less in its candor, If not assinine in its
| simplicity. We're it not that the editor
| then proceeds to lecture the members of
high finance" upon the errors of their
/ way. He first asks the question: What
! has Roosevelt done to displease Wall
| street," and proceeds to answer that his
courageous independence in financial
matters is the only fault to be found
| with him. Roosevelt has proved him.
self to be a safe, conservative official,
| and for this reason the Wall street edi-
| tor thinks that tinanciers could do far
worse than supporting the president,
but he admits that high finance" is not
accustomed to dealing where it does not
control
Then turning to the methods with
which high finance" purposes to COM
pass the deefat of an independent pres
ident, the Wall street editor very forci-
bly, points out that to use Judge Parker
and the democratic party can only be
all of the unsafe and dangerous ele-
ments that now compose the democratic
and populist parties. High finance"
| would make a sorry mess of 1T if she
undertook to control so many wild
horses in one team, and the dangers of
the experiment make it the heighth of
folly for financial interests to attempt
ii.
Thus cornered between the devil and
the deep sea, the Wall street editor asks
his readers to turn about for a more
careful look at the devil they seem to
fear He grants to them that Wall
streets judgment on matters of public
interest is apt to be wise and sound,
both economically and financially, but
warns them that it Is not universally
safe guardian of the public veal
Roosevelt's only offense seems to have
been his interference in the Northern
Securities affair which came to Wall
street as a sudden shock. but in this
Roosevelt was only standing courage
ously for the enforcement of the law
and of all classes, our Wall street edi-
tor believes that high finance" is by
far the most dependent upon law and
its strict enforcement for Its welfare
He observes that Wall street may want
to break the law sometimes, and no
doubt finds it irksome not to be allowed
to do so, but Wall street has not a great
deal more to lose from a general dsre-
gard for law than it has from its uni
yersal enforcement. Hence our editor
would be a very poor policy to unchain
the forces of socialism merely to get rid
of the present executive because he
could not be controlled. These close
range observations of Wall street ed
itor will meet with approval from the
public at large. They may be read In
i'll humor by the men to whom the re-
marks were directed, but 1t is also pos
sible that before the summer conven-
ton of l9u4 arrives hlgn Inance VIII
have been able to read public opinion
Alright. Today no one in the republican
party is strong enough to stand against
Roosevelt in the public eye, and while
a concentration of the forces of social
ism, demagogery and high finance"
might defeat him at the polls, can Wall
street afford to take the risks?