The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-05
THE LATEST HISTORICAL ROMANCE

man DeIOfe he became cIllel magistrate ol
the republic. 1t is quality that no
President ever needed more than the
present executive. A plain. blunt man,
who sets down things plainly, would have
had a hard time to justify his usurpation
in Panama. 1t takes a man who has had
experience as a writer of Western ranch
stories to be equal to the task of Justify
ing that performance. But Mr. Roosevelt
has the necessary talent. and his support
ers will have abundant cause to rejoice
that he is zone of them literary fellows
for he has written the story of the pro-
ceedure in a style SO vigorous and real
istic as to show that as writer of his
toric novels he could put the authors of
Richard Carvel.' and like historical ro-
mances in the shade. He not only defends
his course, he glories in it. and surrounds
it with homemade halo that is apt
to make the average reader believe that
the halo came from the skies.
Indeed the impression conveyed by the
nay astounded-at his own moderation.
AS he looks back upon the enterprise he
pats himself on the back for his exhibition
of self-restraint. He can hardly under
stand how he could remain in Washing
ton, quietly engineering the revolution
whereby eight men-one Frenchman. one
Ind
carried out the voluntary uprising that
made Panama ring with the shouts OF
Give me liberty or give me death He
evidently thinks he is entitled to COM
mendation that he didn't get into a man
cf-war and go down to the isthmus and
blow Colombia into smithereens. That
would have comported more with his
strenuositv.
The substance of the message is: Look
vented an obstreperous little grasping re-
public from robbing America and check
ing the worlds commerce. OF course
he makes a plausible story, for his is an
ex parte statement. The stories of the
able men who have been sending the facts
as they occurred In Panama, read very diff
ferently But no two men can see exact
ly alike. The newspaper correspondents
saw the actual happenings without any
preconceived bias. They had no policy to
boost They were writing current history
as it is, regardless of whose policy it
helped or hurt On the other hand the
President, having hurried headlong into
piece of piracy, is compelled to bolster
up his position if he can. And that's
where his literary training comes IN
handy He has made a story that reads
like a chapter Of Richard CarveIs meet
ing with George Washington-it reads so
realistic as to make you think it really
happened as recorded. 1t is said that the
author of Richard Carvel became SO IN
terested in his story. was so absorbed in
its every detail, that before he had fin
;shed he believed that it was the real
history, and what boys are taught In the
schools was historic romance. 1t seems
that, dominated by the necessity OF making
his action seem legal and wise, the Presi-
dent is likewise animated by the delusion
that his historical romance. called ii
Presidents Message" is the real story
of what has occurred. and the reports
from Panama and the actual data publish
ed in the American newspapers together
make a cunningly devised fable to mislead
the people.
There is no talent that comes more
handy to a 'usur2erious' executive like
the talent that belongs to them literary
fellows as Simon Cameron was went to
call the scholars and students he met in
the Senate. Mr.. Roosevelt. no doubt. re-
joices today that before he became presi-
dent, ne devoted so much time 30 writing
romances of the wild and woolly West.
That's why he can make his Panama
buccaneering as interesting as any story of
the days when unlicensed and irresponsi-
bic pirates took whatever a weaker people
had if they wanted it, or needed it in their
business.