Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-15
OlneY and HAY.


The Boston Herald. in sarcastic vein. has
this to say:
THE Washington Star which is issued
in the same city where the White House
and the granite State Department are
established has dared to intimate that the
country could live If Secretary of State
John Hay should retire from office. This Is
something dreadful a suggestion. But
since a seemingly toIerable successor to
Elihu Root in the War Department was
discovered we do not know but The Star
may be right. We know that, in the Presi-
dents opinion, Mr.. Root was the greatest
Secretary of War, and almost the grea test
cabinet officer, the country has ever known.
Yet he resigned and some one was found
who could take his place without causing
cataclysm of the government. We do not
think Mr.. Roosevelt VIII agree with The
Star that somebody besides himself could
select another capable Secretary of State.
The Star makes bold to say that Mr.. Par
ker, If elected. could probably do it. 1t is
current talk In political circles it says.
that, If Judge Parker is elected, Mr.. Olney
VIII be asked to take. and will probably ac-
cept, his old place at the head of the State
department. There is an impression that
lie liked the work while engaged in it, and
would be pleased to resume it >
Supplying successor to SO able and sue
cessful man as John Hay would call for
the best that Judge Parker could do. and
MIR. OIney would bring both ginger and ex-
perience to the post
Wen, how does the suggestion strike the
Herald? Issued. it is, in the same city
where MIR. Olney lives. it should have a
definite opinion about SO eminent a man
and be willing to express it. Could Judge
Parker President do better? Did any
member of the second Cleveland cabinet
gather more laurels than the Boston man.
AS a matter of fact was he not the only
member hot
laurels at all? The administration was
beset with so many difficulties from the
very start that laurel-gathering was next
to an impossible performance But Mr..
olney undoubtedly accomplished something
in that line.
Everybody, however was not equally
pleased with him. Up and down the spines
OF some democrats he sent cold shivers
Was the Herald among those newspaner
supporters of the Cleveland administration
which could see only reckless folly in the
Venezuelan letter? Did it take the ground.
as others did, that neither Mr. Olney nor
his chief in the White House knew the true
meaning of the Monroe doctrine? Did it
lecture him. as others did on the perform
ance, and tell him in plain terms that in
bringing the country up to the verge of
war with Great Britain at such time and
in such controversy he had merited the
severest censure?
Mr.. Olney's national reputation and pres
tlge rest upon that episode. If he should
be called back to the State Department by
Judge Parker the choice would admit of
but one explanation, and that would be ac-
cepted both at home and abroad. 1t
would mean a vigorous foreign policy,
founded upon Mr.. OIney's well-known
views, that the United States is no longer
a hermit nation. and that it has a duty to
perform as one of the great powers of the
world. But how would that please those
democrats who denounced him as danger
Gus and reckless in the Venezuelan case
and are opposing Mr. Roosevelt on the same
grounds? Putting John Hay out and Rich
ard Olney in would hardly transform the
State Department into d Quaker headquar-