The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-16
SUNDAY, OCTOBER ls, 1904.
CORTELYOU,s CASE.

The Republicans are squirming under the attacks made upon Cortelyou and they defend him as a most amiable gem tleman. They even say he has so many friends in public life that the charges made against him are reacting and in. turing the Democrats who have for gotten the proprieties of political de- bate. The attacks continue, however. and will continue. That they are reach ing a tender spot in the Republican anatomy is a sufficient excuse for the average campaigner either on the stump or in the press to charge over and over again that it was a disreputable trick that Roosevelt played when he took Cortelyou from the head of the De- partment of Commerce and Labor and placed him at the head of his Campaign Committee.
 Mir. Cortelyou is undoubtedly quite a gentleman as the world goes, but mo- : body ever mistook him for a genius or a man even of commanding ability. The frequent trips he made to Oyster Bay while the President was there; the fre-
  now that the headquarters have been transferred to the seat of Government, makes as plain as day the real ground of his appointment as Chairman. He is dummy for Roosevelt, himself. He is in daily consultation with the Pres ident and 1t is the latter who Is rum ming the machine. Putting aside all questions of the propriety of a Presi- dent mixing directly in contest of this sort and going straight to the issue that Cortelyou's appointment has rais- ed, this much can be said, we think In all fairness: man with a delicate sense of honor could not afford to and would not approach a corporation ask ing for money to be used in an elec- tion. when as a sworn officer of the law he had been made the recipient of the business condolences of that cor poration. In very true sense MT. Cor telyou. however softly he may speak, is known to carry a big stick. and a corporation approached for a contribu- ton well knows the big stick Is there whether 1t is fiourished or not. The scandal of it Is patent and it Is only obscured, if obscured at all, by the public being habituated to wholly un- precedented causes of conduct on the part of Roosevelt He does his dis graceful things so openly and shame lessly that the average man in the street has ceased to be taken aback, to look aghast at a plotter who plots so openly and defantly. There was a good example of this quality in Roose- welt when he invited Lou Payn to the White House for a conference. This most notorious creature, perhaps the most notorious among long list of Re- publican politicians in New York State, one whom Roosevelt himself had felt compelled to dismiss from office on &C., count of his corruption, Is cheerfully and even gayly embraced at Washing ton, coming and going in the full glare of the monday sun. Undoubtedly If Teddy was going to hug the rascal, he chose the best way to hug him, before the millions of his fellow-citizens. Sus- picion would naturally be lulled by a spectacle of such boyish openness and frankness.
 In the same spirit he sends his man Friday at the head of the committee out to raise funds. armed as he is with Government secret information with which necessarily an implied threat goes, and so boldly challenges the | moral judgment of the voters of the | Tinted States. He is being hammered | with some effect at the North for his colnplete callousness in this paDticular Dit q enterprisA