The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-11-08
A CAMPAIGN FROM THE GREEN
ROOM"


The reply of the President to the
charges preferred by Judge Parker is
nothing more than the ebullition of
rage of a man who, placed through
his own fault in an indefensible posi-
ton, seeks to beg the question by the
use of terms of vicious personal abuse.
Actions will always speak louder
than words and thinking people are
not slow to run the true line be-
tween cause and effect.
When Secretary of Commerce Cor
telyou was named as chairman by Mr..
Roosevelt, the circumstance of his
closely subservient relationship to
the President, coupled with the pc
culiar functions of the department
of which he had been named the head
and the almost instant moderation in
the tone of the trusts and the trust
papers which up to that time had
been violent in their opposition to
the administration, caused an unwel-
come suspicion to pervade the entire
country When a little later the
trusts turned en- masse from opposi-
ton to cordial support and the Re-
publican campaign Golfers began to
overflow with trust contributions, the
suspicion became a conviction that
could only be removed by proof or
by an explicit and detailed denial.
The people have always been ready
to believe their President when ne
has spoken frankly But what does
Roosevelt say? Merely, with a flow
of denunciation couched in the IAN
guage of the prpoletariat ana the
green room that the charge that
he had made an agreement with the
trusts was an infamous and atfo-
cious falsehoOd,' etc, and his state
ment of his intentions was that ne
proposed to give everybody square
deal" 1t was admitted that the trusts
were contributing to the Republican
campaign fund and it will take put
a small reelection to show that the
trusts-which have no soul. no per-
sonal predictions and no principles
could have no other than strictly
business motives for doing so. me
nifty of their profits is proof enough
of their business capacity Now pus-
mess gives nothing save for value re-
ceived. Is it sane proposition that
the very interests which were one
month abusing the administration 10
high heaven should have been con-
verified to Roosevelt or Influenced to
abstract principle or political sentl-
ment? Does there live the man VINO
has ever received money from trust
except by way Of some sort OF con-
tract, either express or implied? Inc
answer is all too evident
But, nothing else appearing, the
closing words of Mr.. RooseVelts let
ter should be in themselves enough to
compass his defeat. "a square deal!
That is an expression which may take
with people whose admiration is liked
on swash- buckling tactics, on the
gamblers of the green room and the
race track, and the pugs of the prize
ring. 1t may even pass i'm business
which by its nature recuTs consta.t,-
" to the old principle of the survival
of the fittest. But it does not come
we'll from the mouth of the Chlet
Executive of great nation. 1t shows
in the very emphasis of its declaration
the drift of the mind of the man and
the policy of his party. 1t suggests
that politics is a matter of finance
based on the idea of winning as one
can! "a square deal' 1t is what the
faro dealer remarks as he shoots the
cards from his box, what the book
maker says as he lays his odds, what
the ring champion claims when he
reaches the point of the jaw. 1t is
situation that holds the menace of
desperate results, when the President
must think it necessary to assure "a
square deal"-especially when the as
sertion itself is coupled with wild
adjectives and is unsupported by the
facts.
The Republican party has this year
gone always to the card games for
it's thunder, has looked alone to bet
ting odds for it's arguments. 1t has
stood pat and laid down its money
as though that ended the discussion.
standing pat at the beginning, 1t
promises at the end of the campaign
to give q Square DEAF. Both the at
titude and the phrases are more than
undignified-they are significant
Stand pat means that the holder
of the hand draws no cards. Does
the last expression imply that, having
filled his hand, from the bottom of
the deck the President now makes
announcement that he will permit his
opponents to take the chances OF a
draw from the cards that remain?
1t is high time for honest men to
upset the table and quit the game.