Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1904-10-05
Mr.. RoosEyELrs LETTER.

--sS-~seeSSAO Vi VIC 1eoDuElkGAn
campaign will hardly care to use
PRESIDENT Rooseyelt's letter of accept
ance as an argument in favor of his
election. Unless the president himself
insists on keeping it before the public
the republicans will try to forget it
as promptly as possible. The letter fs
entirely unworthy of man as frank
and manly and sincere as President
RooseYelt's admirers would have ms
believe him to be.
The whole document is full of twist
Ing and subterfuge and evasion. Take.
for example, the presidents desperate
effort to explain away the deficit in the
treasury. q deficit that is surprising
some honest Republicans who have
been telling US about the wonderful
surplus created by wise Republican
management. Mr.. Roosevelt says the
deficit is imaginary" and on the heels
OF that statement he proceeds to tell
US how this imaginary" trouble was
caused.
He says it is the outcome of the pay.
ment of $50, 600 900 for the French Pan.
anna Canal company's property and the
right of way through the artificial re.
public of Panama. If it had not been
for that payment there would have
been no deficit, says the president.
We are willing, for the sake of argu-
ment. to concede the truth of his state
ment. But the money was spent and
the deficit is real, not imaginary" A
man who Overdraws his bank account
In order to purchase suit OF clothes
might properly say that his account
would not have been overdrawn if he
hadn't bought the clothes, but his
banker requires him to settle, just the
same. The banker doesn't see any.
thing Imaginary" about that over
draft.
The prime reason why the expenses
of the government have increased of
recent years." says the president, lis
to be found in the fact that the people,
after mature thought. have deemed it
wise to have certain new forms of work
for the public undertaken by the pub.
lic.H
This is as if Mr.. Roosevelt had said.
81 am the people," The public was not
consulted in the matter of the Panama
canal. Mr.. Roosevelt recognized the
republic of Panama long before great
majority of the American people had
any notion that such a republic exist
ed. BY stroke of his pen, without
consulting the American people any
| more than if they had not existed, Mr..
Roosevelt added millions of dollars to
/ our pension expenditures. The people
had nothing whatever to do with it.
The president, by inference, at least,
charges the national irrigation law
with part Of the responsibility for the
deficit. He wants to know if the Dem
ocrats would put a stop to national aid
for irrigation? Inasmuch as the Dem
ocrats of the house were directly and
entirely responsible for the passage of
the national irrigation act. it is hardly
necessary to say they Will continue to
aid the work. But MIR. Roosevelt very
we'll knows that national irrigation in
| wolves the government in no permanent
expenditure.
The law distinctly provides that ev-
cry dollar spent for national irriga-
ton enterprises shall be returned to
the government treasury by the pur.
chasers of the land benefited. There is
a provision IN the law which says that
no enterprise shall be undertaken that
is not certain to bring back into the
treasury in the sale OF land all the
money the enterprise cost. Mr.. Roose'
velt's discussion of irrigation in con
nectiOn with the deficit is merely an
other bubble and we will not be sc
disrespectful as to charge him witt
!: the incredible ignorance that must be
: his if be IS IN earnest in this matter.
The message throughout is a paean
of congratulation to the country for it:
great wisdom in electing Mr.. Roosevelt
to the vice presidency in 1900. Never
according to the letter, have the affairs
of the nation been 80 capably ad
ministered, never was there man 81
thoroughly equipped to be president o
the United States as 7. Roosevelt.
The Democrats will miss an oppor
tunity if they fail to make campaign
: document out of the Roosevelt plea TO
election.
i