Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1904-12-10
Roosevelt rs HAND
IS TN EVIDENCE


dent, however, and again without con
suiting anyone out here in Oregon
sent to San Francisco and instructed
Mr.. Heney' to come up here and aic
Mr.. Hall. The political roar this raised
is still getting its dust settled. What
did the President mean sending away
to San Francisco, when SO many able
attorneys had been recommended from
Portlandi The President evidently
wasn't looking for able Portland law
yers. And, to judge from the reports
of the trial, President Roosevelt not
only instructed Mr.. Heney to come up
here and assist Mr.. Hall, but told him
to take charge of the case, without
going to the extent Of any discourtesy
to the professional position of Mr..
Hall.
From accounts Of the trial it appears
that Mr.. Heney conducted the case,
questioned the witness, carried on
telegraphic correspondence with Sena-
tor Mitchell, and, in fact, was the head
representative of the government. The
selection of Mr.. Heney was significant.
Mr. Heney was Californian. He
knew nothing of Oregon. That is to
say, he had no interests, either per-
sonal or political here whereby his
Judgment, his ability to fairly repre-
sent the government, could possibly be
warped or warmed by any partiality.
Roosevelt took no chances even in
this. He wouldn't even allow Port
land attorney to assist. He chose a
complete stranger to Oregon politicians,
Oregon people and Portland legal ma
chinery, thereby ensuring impartiality
and no shielding of a single guilty
man, be he high or low.
As an evidence of this point, it is
remembered that during an alteration
with counsel for the defense, he re-
sponded to Judge O'Day with the re-
mark that if necessary he would go to
the door of not only Judge O'Day's,
but to the door of the President of the
United States in his prosecution of the
defendants.
Correspondence from Washington
gives it out that Senator Mitchell was
highly indignant because of the pub
lication in the press of telegraphic
letters between Mr.. Heney and him
self relative to Mr.. Heney, asking him
to appear as witness for the govern
ment, and warning the senator that the
ease Of the government might be lost
without his testimony. This irritation
once more points to the wisdom of
an outsider to represent the
government. Mr.. Heney made no effort
TO varnish his wishes, and not only
scored the senator for running away,
but said if he had been Mr.. Hall, he
would have subpoenaed the senator the
first thing. So much for the Presi-
lent IS little Irishman. He has come
md the government has won.
To show again that the President
Knew his man, Mr.. Heney in address
ng the court at the close of the trial
advised the court that Miss Ware be
dismissed, since the government had
'ailed to sufficiently connect her with
he conspiracy to warrant. her convic-
ion. This spirit of fairness, along
With his determination to allow no
guilty person to escape, stamps him as
/ man of more than ordinary ability, |
md a man who certainly has not caused
he President to blush because of his |
hoice.
Thus we have here very fair ex-
nipple of what Roosevelt is doing all
'ver the country. This is the way he
loes things. And that he does things
ve have unquestionable evidence. 1t
Ices the country good to feel the adj
presence of its exalted
uler, and TO see his hand, and feel that
n spite of seeming overwhelming
of the bad, we have a
nan clothed with the authority to make
II things right, and a man who does
t. There is nothing which revives the
pirit of the common people like the
interest personally shown them from
hese sources. A little more intimacy
nth the President after this manner
Tould reduce to handful the growing
endeney towards anarchy, and would
Hence the cry of corrupt politics in
lany quarters.
If Roosevelt is a specimen of young
may we hope that the
hair of our national head will ever be
dorned with one of them.
FRED r. WATERS.
December 6, 1904.