Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1904-09-28
FROM WASHINGTON

welt : letter Oh dCScp'dhCe, Salu.
President Roosevelt's letter of
acceptance is too long to be review
al in an interview. nor have | had
an opportunity to 90 over it with
sufficient care Co attempt that task.
Like most of his writings, il is
virile and bold. and likewise, as
most of his writings, it is full of
inaccuracies. Few men have the
dramatic instinct To a greater de-
GREE than President Roosevelt. 1t
i an excellent quality in an author
and very dangerous one in a
President. IL makes all his writ
ings readable and keeps the coun-
fry i'm continual alarm as to what
hc will do next.
1t takes a bold man to speak of
the stiffness and uncertainty of
others who has himself rs shify
and uncertain record as Mr..
Roosevelt. The Free Trader talk
inc protection and the Trust
Buster grown gentle, has little
reason to talk of the stiffness or
uncertainty of others.
Mr.. Roosevelt's htter of ac-
ceptance is full of assumptions that
lack facts to back them. When
he says, for instance. Do they (the
democrats object To the way in
which the Monroe Doctrine has
been strengthened and upheldF Z he
assumes the very thing which
never occurred. The Monroe Doc
trine. as every one knows, has
been weakened by Mr.. Roosevelt's
attempted definition and limitation
of il. When he says that never
before has this Doctrine been ac-
ouiesced in abroad rs il is now he
should qualify it by stating that it
is his Monroe Doctrine that is ac-
quieSced in and not the Monroe
Doctrine as il was known before
he amended it. His construction
has been acquieSced in abroad be-
cause it was in conformity with
foreign interests.
lie has the temerity also to
ask whether we objected To his ac-
ton on the petition of the Ameri-
can citizens against the Kinshinef
massacre. In the light of Mr..
RooSevelt's complete back-down
on his proposed forwarding of that
petition To the Gar, this statement
Is amusing.
Mr.. Roosevelt also says that
the democrats assert their belief
IN reciprocity. but their action on
the Cuban Treaty does not carry
out their assertion This is a plain
attempt to misstate the facts of
history. Mr.. Roosevelt knows
that his Cuban policy never could
have been put into execution eX-
cept by the unanimous aid of the
democratic party. He knows that
1t was fought, and bitterly fought,
by a large and influential portion
of the Republican party, both in
the House and Senate. 1t is true
the democrats desire to take off the
protection to the Sugar Trusts; it
Is also true they opposed the clause
IN the Cuban treaty which practi-
cally prohibited reciprocity tow
ards any other country. But
though they could not get their
ideas into the treaty, they accepted
1t as the best they could do and
stood by the policy of reciprocity.
Mr.. Roosevelt's talk of liberal
ity to the veterans by his executive
order and criticism of the demo-
Gratis comes dangerously near being
the plea of a small lawyer in a
Justices court. The Democratic
policy was shown when the party
offered to make his illegal order
law by putting it on the Statute
book thus securing to the veter-
an that which he holds now only
oy the precarious tenure of an ex-
ecutlve order.
On the question of expendi-
lures, the President announces
that the expenses of the Govern
ment have not increased, and then
explains how they have increased,
and IN his explanation he includes
TIE purchase of the Panama Cana
and the cost of irrigating arid
lands. Neither of these are inclu.
ded In the appropriation for this
year, nor in the statements ISSUED
showing the expenses under his
administration, which were i'm the
'our years past, two hundred anC
eleven million dollars more thar
under Mr.. Mckinley, although h,
Al