The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-09-16
NATIONAL POLITICS.
Easy Way to Be Vigorous.
the New York World.

ascribing to President Roosevelt's letter of acceptance the merit of vigor. It is easy to be vigorous when you are un- trammelled by anything but the dieticn- ary. It is when you are hampered by a slavish regard for facts that there be- gins to be trouble in hur1ing strong lan- guage.
 MT. Roosevelt is under no such diff culty. He recognizes no obligation to keep his words in any sort of relation with realities. They meet all his requirements if they are sufficiently noisy
 For instance, the President says:
 We do not have to guess at our own convictions and then correct the guess if it seems unpopular. The principles which we profess are those In which we believe with heart and soul and strength.
 Yet this is the same Theodore Roose- velt who said in his Life of Thomas H. Benton that political economists have pretty generally agreed that protection is vicious in theory and harmful in prac- tice,' and who now stands pat on the divinity of the highest tariff ever known in civilized country. It is the same The 1NCcoCHNil WuO III 1000 ohpPOil Harrison on a platform denouncing the Cleveland administration for "its efforts to demonetize silver" and who now treats the gold standard as a matter mot of momentary political expediency, but of permanent organic policy.o
 MT. Roosevelt says that "in 1896 the re- publican party came Into power. and in 1900 it retained power, on certain definite pledges, each of which was scrupulously fulfilled" Those pledges, in 1896, included promises to extend reciprocity arrange ments with foreign countries, to upbuild the merchant marine by discriminating duties, to promote an international agree ment for the free coinage of silver to build a canal by the Nicaragua route, to exclude from the United States immi- grants who could neither read nor write, to establish a national board of arbitra- ton for the settlement of interstate labor disputes, and to admit the remaining ter ritories as states. In 1900 the party prom ised additional monetary legislation and renewed most of the unkept pledges of 1S96
 Will the President cite the statutes by which each of these promises has been "scrupulously fIlflled?"
 Mir Roosevelt asserts that 'the voice of the United States would now count for nothing in the far east if we had aban- doned the Philippines and refused to dc what was done in China" Did the voice of the United States count for nothing when Perry opened Japan to western civ llization, when Burlingame brought China into relations with Europe and America, and when American advisers directed the foreign policy of Korea?
 MT. Roosevelt claims a monopoly of tht defense of free labor, and asserts thai whenever his opponents have had power they have fittingly supplemented extravaganza of promise by absolute null l lity in performance" Yet he Is ole enough to remember Cleveland's way oi dealing with riot at Chicago in 1894, and to contrast it with his own attitude wher a military mob under his the command of his rough-riding friend Sherman Bel was trampling on the fourteenth amend ment to the constitution of the United States in Colorado ten years later. 1 MT. ItOOStFSll dSScIiS ltldt lhc Itpupli' can party is Ion record as favoring ar. engagements for reciprocal trade relations with other countries" Yet when the l time comes to conclude one of those re- 1 ciprocal arrangements that the party is Ion record as favoring' it always kills the proposition. The only such arrange ment that has gone into effect is that with Cuba.
 l MT. Roosevelt asserts that the past for ty-odd years under protection have been 'the most prosperous years this nation l has ever seen" Yet these forty-odd years have included ten years of the deepest distress and several more years of dep ~ession. with two of the most dis. astrous panics in American history and | three or four minor crises. No other pc riod since the adoption of the constitution has a worse record in this respect.
 These are few samples of direct mis statement. To expose all MT. Roosevelt: perversions of the truth would require commentary as long as the letter O acceptance itself. The conservative Bos ton Herald well says: Tt would be tot severe a criticism to say that there i. not a subject touched upon by MT. Roose welt in this long, artfully wrought de lverance which is treated candidly ant fairly. In advocacy and in opposition h, is equally unjust