The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-21
SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1904.
ROOSEVELT HIS OWN CHArRMA::..


 If Secretary Cortelyou is in fact to be chairman of the Republican National Executive Committee this means Roose- yslt is to be his own chairman. Cortel- you's selection, and Hits. if that should be made. would make the opposition read, Roosevelt, Hit and it. On putting the statement in another form, the op- position will have as a ticket, Roose- welt for first place, Roosevelt for second place and Roosevelt for chairman. sena- tor Aldrich assures the country that the character and conduct of the President cannot be made an issue. Roosevelt is evidently determined that there shall be no other issue than himself if he can help it. The elder statesmen may try their hardest to suppress him during the campaign and compel him into silence. He will have none of these He means to be the whole team and the dog under the wagon.
 cortelyou's selection might mean des- pairing choice after all the strong and capable men of the Republican Party had refused to identify their fortunes with the candidacy of Roosevelt. That they have so refused is well-known. It looks. however, as if Roosevelt really welcomed taking change in person and no man he could find is better suited for the posi- ton of factotum than Cortelyou. The Secretary as all the world knows made an excellent private secretary. He has cold, but courteous, manners and he is the embodiment of discretion. He says  never too much, never too little. It appears to be planned in his interest now that he shall manage the campaign and so from the chairmanship to the Post office Department. This is a confession that he dislikes his present place even if 1t does not furnish proof of his unfitness for it. There was a deal of buncombe in the constitution of the new Depart mcnt of Commerce and Labor and yet 1t offered a fine opportunity to a man of genuine force and originality. The whole field of government agency in its rela- tions with active trade and transportation and with the labor problems pressing so severely upon the attention of the coun- try. offered a prize to a masterful and thoughtful mind. This excellent clerk had no range of vision and he had no 1 foundations of knowledge. He has not even decorated the post. He has sat and wondered what he was put there | for. We can well understand 1t will be | with sense of relief that he would give l up his department and undertake task | like the chairmanship. calling largely for | interviews and still more largely for cor | respondenee. He is a postmaster in giv- ing interviews and he is mighty as a dictater of letters. In questions of policy, questions affecting the wider range of national interests ,the ebb and flow of opinion in different States and various quarters of the Union, Secretary Cortelyou so far as we know is a child. If he is to be named as a chairman. Roosevelt is selecting a clerk He is, with confidence born of his boundless self-esteem, determined to wage his own battle in his own interests. There is real good promise in this for the Demo- cratic Party. Abuse of Roosevelt will not be needed. A dispassionate arraign- ment of him will be needed and as the manager of his own contest for an cleo tion he will, we predict, cut such figure as to invite and secure the stern con- demnation of the people