The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-11-06
LESE MAJESTY.

RooSevelt'S angry answer 10 TIC
charges made by the New YORK
World, the New York Times, the
Brooklyn Eagle and number or
OF her metropolitan dailies or the
Democratic and Independent press
and repeated with much impressive
ness by Judge Parker, displays more
of the spirit of Les Majesty tnan any
of his former utterances. He as
sumes in that reply the attitude of
veritable autocrat In fact ne notl-
fes Judge Parker, and the press, that
while it may be all right to crluclse
and question the motives and reasons
Of others that it is an offence against
the Government not to be tolerated.
even remotely, to impute any wrong
doing or selfish motive to him.
The charges the press and Judge
Parker, together with hundreds OF
thousands of other people in the
United States are today making, ana
which are generally believed to be
well founded, are charges against MI
Cortelyou, chairman OF the Repupli-
can party, and the leaders OF the he
publican party who are known to be
cooperating with Mr.. CorteIyou III
running the campaign.
The charge is that the monopollsts
are deliberately contributing enormous
Sums of money to the Republican
campaign, not for the purpose OF Sc
curing what they regard as good gov
eminent or equal and just laws, but
for the purpose OF securing laws
which will enable them to levy tr1b-
ute upon the people, and that the
trust sare making these enormous
contributions for the purpose of buy
ing exemption and immunity against
punishment for past and future Nlo-
lations of the criminal law.
The charge is that they hope, by
these means, to so far put the Re-
publican party under obligations to
them that it will stand pat upon the
laws, by and through which they now
make their profits, and will not en-
force the criminal law now upon the
Statute Books. against them.
These same charges were made
against Mr.. Hanna and to the Repub-
liCan leaders in 1896 wnen Mir. Nc
Kinley was candidate for the Presi-
dency, but Mr.. Mckinley did not re-
gard these charges as an attack upon
his personal integrity, and did not feel
called upon to denounce everybody
who made them as liars.
These charges were repeated again
in 1900, when Mr.. Hanna, then a
United States Senator and at the head
of the Republican Executive Commit
tee, but nett her Mr.. Hanna nor Mr..
Mckinley felt called upon to de-
nounee every one who made them as
liars.
1t was understood by everyone that
the charges were made against the Re-
publican party organization.
The only difference between the
charges made against Mr.. Hanral and
the Republican leaders i'll 1896 and in
1900, and those made against Cortel-
you and the Republican leaders this
year, is in the fact that the charges
made in 1896 ana 1900 were based
upon strong suspicion amounting al
most to certainty, while the
charges this year are based upon evil
dence entirely satisfactory to the men
who make the charges, and to large
part of the people of the country.
This year, too, they are made by men,
some of whom were silent in 1896
when they should have spoken out
against the crime they now so
courageously denounce. Then, too,
the Secretary of Labor and Commerce
had not been appointed and vested
with the authority and power that
makes his Office peculiarly adapted to
the levy of blackmail
This answer of Mr.. Roosevelts prob
ably more than any other of his rash
utterances, illustrates his dangerous
and unsafe character and his auto
cratic disposition.