Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1904-10-28
Masterful Address
Of Secretary Hay
,Continued from Page Two.)

0HV&kAosy - Ses Wv.
strong. Their candidate d%enounces
the pension order. admitting a fixed
age as partial proof OF disability. and
then offers, as a bribe for soldiers
votes, to recommend q service pension
for everybody Of an indefinite and
u%nspecified age.
In this hopeless lack Of unity, in
this dearth of issues, they all back
on a campaign of fiction and SANDER.
They remind one Of the classic French
story of the famous household where
there was more wit than means,
where the dinner was often merely
a feast Of cas- and a filet OF sole.
On one location the thrifty lady of
the house telegraphed her clever hus-
band, "Give us another story; we've
got no roast"
It is a misfortune for a party, as
is for an individual, to have no Sc
rious occupation, for Satan finds
mischief for idle hands. Because
they have absolutely no facts to bring
forward they have produced a fantas-
tic variety of fictions. l will not &C.
cupy your time by %recounting these
rather ignoble flights Of imagination.
/ will only refer to one class OF charg-
es-those which ring the changes on
two words; the President is law
less and unsafe"
Every act of his which they quail
fy as lawless has been done after
careful study of the law, after counsel
with the best lawyers, and every one
which has been brought to the test
OF the courts has been triumphantly
approved by our highest judicial au-
thorities.
And then that hoodoo cry unsafe
how is it to be treated seriously?
Unsafe he undoubtedly is, as the law
ia to the malefactor, as the Judge is
to the criminal, as the d%isinfectant is
to the microbe. But what shall we
say to those who in the same breath
accuse him of dangerous hostility to
business interests and also of sub
servience to the great corporations?
Let them answer each other,
But we are told he is dangerous to
the peace of the world, he is a fire
eater, a war lord-he wishes to en-
broil us In a policy OF adventure.
What does the record say? He and
his predecessor have done more in
the interest of universal peace than
any other two Presidents since our
Government was formed. They have
done more for the cause of arbitration
than all the rest put together. They
have composed more difficulties by
friendly negotiation; they have set
tied more questions that threatened
our peace; they have made more trea-
ties, and more mutually advanta-
geous ones, than any other Presidents
in our history. Theodore Roosevelt
ave to The Hague Court of Arbitra-
ton the breath of new life when
death threatened it. His influence,
constantly and quietly exerted among
our sister nations, has often dissuad-
ed from violence and led to peaceful
solutions. He is now preparing a
set of arbitration treaties with all
the countries which desire them. In
compliance with the call of the Inter
parliamentary Union-who had con
fidence in his discretion and his
love of peace-he is trying to induce
the powers to come together once more
in conference at The Hague to con-
cert measures for the peace and well
fare Of the world. And yet | would
not ask you to believe that the Presi-
dent holds peace higher than all other
considerations. Sacred as the word
is to him, there are others more sacred
still-Honor and Duty. So long as
the millennium delays he will stand
by Americans interests and American
rights, keeping his sword well sharp
ened and his powder dry.
1t sometimes seems a waste OF
time to meet these wild and whirl-
ing words" of calumny. The men
that utter them do not themselves
believe them. Each mar of them
knows very well that he could wish
no happier lot to his boy in the cradle
than that he might grow up to be
such a man as Theodore Roosevelt.
II some weakminded anarchist
should take il into his added brain
to adopt the amiable and chivalrous
advice given the other day in a public
speech by an Alabama Congressman
and send President Roosevelt 10
join the equally loved and mallgned
Lincoln and Garfield and Mckinley,
you know NOW what a nall of sorrow