The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-12-10
ROOSEVELT SHOWS THE
STUFF HE is MADE OF
The President Refuses to Accede to
Request of Wall Street
Financiers.
This, It Is Said, Accounts for the
Recent Stories Of oppo-
sition.
Hanna, However, Has Declined to
Lead Campaign Against the
New Yorker.

1edu NdIupdlgu ASdlIlSI tAc
New Yorker.
New York Sun Special Service
Washington, Dec. 10.-President
Roosevelt has refused to make terms
of peace with the trust and railway
corporation leaders OF New York.
They approached the president with
to him if he would give them certain
| assurances as to his future course.
The president. declined point blank.
| Angered by this rejection of their
| proffers of peace and the failure OF
their plan to tie the hands Of the
| financiers started last desperate
movement designed to bring Senator
Hanna forward as candidate for the
republican nomination for president.
This, too, has failed. Mr.. Hanna is
not willing to become a candidate
with the backing of Wall street and
the support Of the lily whites of the
south.
These important disclosures, which
are made on the highest authority,
| explain much that has been going on
above and beneath the surface during
ator Hanna's visit to New York city
last week and the week before and
the conference held there between
himself and a number of the biggest
corporation men of Wall street, these
conferences being sought, not by the
senator, but by the fnanciers.
They explain the appearance Of
hundreds of letters in the far west In
curing if there had not been a turn
Of public sentiment against President
Roosevelt.
Wall Street Opposition.
Virtually all of the opposition to
President Rooseye1t's nomination can
now be traced directly to Wall street.
1t does not originate in public senti-
ment nor in Washington among the
representatives of the people, nor
with Senator Hanna. The Ohio SEN
ator refuses to be used as the tool. OF
+ Wall street in it's scheme to defeat
the president and to disrupt, the re-
publican party.
Three or four weeks ago President
Roosevelt was approached by reps
rese ntative of the great interests
such as the Rockefeller-Gould com.
Z bination, j.. Pierpont Morgan and E
| Fl. Hartman. This Representative
wanted to, ascertain if an samicable
understanding could not be arrived
Rat He said the men for whom he
i spoke We're anxious to the future
Z of commerce and, finance in the
n United States. They had no fear O
any thing the president might do il
the coming year saying frankly tina
they thought the president would fee
constrained to adhere to a conserva
tive policy until after the presidentia
: election What they were pafticu
Z larly anxious about, he explained, wa.
1.-The course of the president after ht
had acquired his second term and TIL,
restraining influences Of the need o
going before the bar of public opin
1C 1,o1 hao II
i Was it not possible for the presiden
}, to give the. New York men some as
i Esurances as to his policies during hi
s second administration? Could he no
a give a pledge that nothing should b.
: done which should destroy bushes
: from action at home or abroad which
: might have a disastrous effect upol
: the commercial world :?
Roosevelt's Reply.
s President Roosev~Jt's reply to thi
n significant proposal was characteristic
n of the man. 1t would not be .prope
y to give the actual words of the repl
a in quotation marks, but the substanc
IL thereof can be stated with great &C
e curacy. The president replied that h
e did not know exactly what was mean
, by the question. If it meant that h
was to give a promise to the effee
II that. he should not. forward the in
y terests of the United States in it's fol
IS eign relations as occasion arose, h
certainly could not give any sue
pledge as that which had been sus
6 gested. He would not tie his hand
y by any general promise. He shout
go on just as he had been going, dc
ing his duty as he saw it,
., If the question meant that as t
=, prosecution of trusts or unlawful CON
- binations, he should bind himself
: do nothing in the future, he most Gel
tainly could not assent to such a Pre-
lposal. He was not going out with
club in his hands trying to smas
- every combination which bore tt
- name of trust, but just as he had PR
secuted the Northern Securities con
! pany he might find it necessary
prosecute other companies in case tt
" final decision of the courts proves
w be favorable to the government. Jul
~ as he used. federal troops to suppre
"a labor lawIessness in Arizona, So
at would use troops anywhere occasio
te might demand.
al Declines to Give Pledges.
,e "And finally" said the presider
TO 'tas to pledges not to upset the bus
o. ness prosperity of the country, if al
A.. such pledges are necessary as a cond
To ton to my reelection I am not fit
- be reelected at all. I decline to gil
re any pledges"
-. Moreover, the president had Il
-. foregoing conversation in mind al
: wished to serve notice upon all wi
-, are interested when he wrote as fo
- - lows in his annual message:
- There shall be no backward ste
- If in the workings Of the laws it prov
a. desirable that they shall at any poi
~ - be expended or amplified, the amen
~ ment can be made as its desirable
az is shown. Meanwhile they are bel
as administered with Judgment, but wi
II insistence upon obedience to the
er and this need has been exemplified
signal fashion by the events of t
-: az past year.
SO