The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1903-03-04
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
AVOWED ASPIRANI FOR PRESI-
DENTAL NOMINATION.
Expects to Win With the Support of the
Nort11-Will Not Accept if His
Majority Is from the South.

A special of recent date from Wash
ington, D. c., to the New York Mail
and Express says: . ="
President Roosevelt does not desire
the nomination for the next presidency
if that nomination can be won in the
Republican national convention of 1904
only by the votes of delegates from the
Southern States.
/. The President is an avowed aspirant
for the nomination, but he is ambitious
that it shall come to him from the repre-
sentatives of the Republican party,
chosen by the free electors in the states
where its voters are in the majority,
or where they have fair possibility of
winning the election. He does not wish
the verdict of the convention to be de-
termined by delegates representing
merely the skeleton of an organization
in States where Republican citizens are
either hopelessly in the minority or are
disfranchised by the wholesale, or can
not command an honest count of their
ballots.
While no person can be quoted, it can
be stated that this declaration, here an
nounced publicly for the first time, is
made upon high authority. 1t will be
contradicted by no man in the political
or personal confidence of the President.
It is a series of incidents, most of
them occurring in the South, that has
made it seem advisable to some of the
closest counselors of the President to
make known thus definitely his attitude
toward the nomination. His ambition to
receive the nomination is natural and
has become a recognized fact.
PREDICTS RoosEvELTs NOMINATION.
The probability that he will be nomi-
mated is considered a certainty by many
prominent Republicans, including SO ex-
perieneed leader and astute a prophet
as Senator Quay, who predicts that Mr.
Roosevelt will be the Republican notli-
nee as sure as he lives.
At the same time the President is ap-
plying to his administration the test he
applies to his own appointments. That is
the test. of fitness. If he is TO be elected
TO his present office it must be by the
Republican party in States that can be
carried by that party. To that element
will Be submitted for approval or rejec-
tion the record and policies of this adj
II they can not command
through the choice of delegates, a clear
majority of the next Republican CON
venfion without the aid of delegates
from states thai are certain to choose
Democratic members Of the electoral
college, this administration will consider
itself repudiated AXsits own party.
This is an attitlde as unprecedented
as it is Independent 1t may be accepted
as indicating the confidence that per-
vades administration circles in the over
whelming popular approva1lof the Pres
ident's course throughout the North and
the West. But it may be regarded also
as a response to some recent events in
Democratic states, growing out of the
race issue and appointment to Office.
HIS POLICY TOWARD NEGROES.
Every day or two an announcement
may be read in the newspapers that this
or that Republican in the South, some
times white and sometimes colored, las
declared against the nomination of
Roosevelt for the next presidency. OF
late these statements have become even
more frequent. They are interpreted IN
Washington as a squence of President
Roosevelt's policy toward the negro citi-
zen in the South and of his answering
opposition to what IS called the Lily
White movement in the Republican or
gaaization in Southern states.
The statement has been repeatedly
made in relation to this policy of the
President that it is devoid of any pur-
pose to capture the votes Of Southern
delegates in the next national Republi-
can convention. The announcements to
which reference is made go to confirm
Ibis statement and to show that the de
termination of the administration to stick
to what it believes to be right and just,
basing appointments solely upon fitness,
regardless Of either faction or color, has
offended men in both factions and has
alienated the local leaders who will
probably control the personnel Of the
Southern delegation in the epublican
convention Of 1904.
This declaration that the ADMINISTERS
tion views with equaninlity the criticism
of these political leaders, whose opposi-
ton arises from disappointment over the
control Of federal patronage and from
the Presidents refusal TO debsr the
qualified negro voter from membership
IL tl,a f,ayfv area ~ yyiif come Al