Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1903-09-30
A PRESIDENT WHO DARES.


Detroit Free Press: No one has
set up the infalibility of the president
OF the United States. His Earnest
friends admit that he does not alw avs
proceed in the most diplomats way
to the accomplishment OF his purpos-
es. Being a man of strong character
and strong convictions, he is b:usqne
and direct when most in earnest and
on occasions finds it necessary to re-
concile an opposition which he had
not thought OF creating. But such or.
rors as have been charged to him are
those of detail and not of essentials.
Being a man whose intuitions are al
most prophetic and whose actions fol-
low quickly upon an accepted sugges-
ton. he finds il difficult to keep with
in the tiresome and annoying re-
straints of government red tape. Slow
action is foreign to his nature and t
is a matter of time for him to learn
that the traditions must be held sac
red just as they were in the famous
decentralization office" where thers
was something like a trip around the
world to accomplish an ED that a
man of directness could reach by
crossing the street.
The president has not been and
probably eve will be weaned from
his abrupt ways. but he is proving a
revelation 10 those who formerly
treated his promptness as impulsiye-
ness and as the evidence of a judg-
ment that would have to be frequently
reversed. There is a fuiced abandon
ment of the idea that he has been
playing the game of politics and that
his policies could be changed by pow.
erful enemies threatening him with a
termination of his presidential career
at the end of the present term. The
intimation from Wall street that its
wealth would be used against him in
the next national campaign did not
swerve him a hairs breadth from his
plan of dealing with the great combi.
nations inimical to the public welfare.
The test cases pending when this at
tempt at intimidation was made are
still pending and there is no thought
of abandoning them. AS one of the
advisers of a modified currency bill,
when the speculative operators want
ed one that would insure expansion
after the plan proposed by Senator
Aldrich, he again served notice that
he Is the president of the people and
not OF Wall street.
All. this said the doubling ones, was
a bid for the labor support. The an
swer came quickly and left them with
out a leg to stand upon. Under the
pressure of emergency he has taken a
stand in the case of Assistant Fore.
man Miller of the government print
ing office that has aroused all the hot
headed element of organized labor to
threaten the defeat OF Roosevelt as
soon as they get a chance at him,
This has not frightened him into the
dismissal of Miller or any attempt to
placate the disgruntled. Rather than
retreat from a position which is alb
solutely correct, and to abandon that
which would be dangerously like trea'
son. he would prefer to go down fight
ing for what he thinks to be right
In succession the president has locked
horns with what are regarded as the
two great political forces of the ma,
ton and neither has been able to
worst him. In the grand total he has
more friends and frmer friends than
at any previous time since he was SC
suddenly called to his present respon'
sibilities. The demand of the nation
al situation is for the fearless mar
with honest purposes, and the convic'
ton grows that he is on duty. Wall
street realizes that 1t took the wrong
stand and labor is rapidly moving to
the same conclusion, while the masses
rejoice that they have a worthy cham
pion in the field.