The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-07-06

all the way from BedIam to Belmont:
as to tariff, the one wing in Maryland
| ing free trade and dynamite for the
custom-houses. When they discuss our
| island possessions, some want to Scut-
| tie away and abandon them out of
hand; others agree with that sensible
southerner who said: Whats the
use talking about expansion. Great
| Scott we've done expanded" One
thing is reasonably sure; they will get
sibly can and they will by implication
approve everything Mckinley and
Roosevelt have done in the last four
years. They will favor sound finance
and a tariff which will not disturb
business; rigid honesty in administra-
ton and prompt punishment of the
dishonest; the Monroe doctrine and
an isthmian canal. To be logical they
publican candidates who are pledged
to all these laudable policies.
But they will not be logical They
do not care to oppose our policy; they
merely deny our sincerity in avow-
ing it, They can not deny the sound
ness of our principles; they pretend
themselves to hold them. But the
function of an opposition is to oppose,
and as they are otherwise destitute
of an issue they seek to make a few
by attributing TO us principles we have
never dreamed of holding and policies
which are abhorrent to us. And dis
in advance, they announce their plan
of campaign to be not pro-anything.
but anti-Roosevelt. This is a mere
counsel of desperation, and the Repub-
licans will gladly accept the issue.
Even on this narrow issue they will
dodge most of the details. Ask them.
Has the president been a good citi-
zen, good soldier, good man in
of intelligence, of education? Does he
know this country we'll? Does he
know the world outside? Has he
studied law, history, and politics? Has
he improved them? Is he sound and
strong in mind, body, soul? Is he
accessible and friendly to all sorts and
conditions of men? Has he the cour-
given ability to speak to the people
and tell them what he thinks? To
all these questions they will answer
Yes. Then what is your objection to
him? They will either stand speech
less or they will answer with the par
rot cry which we have heard so often:
He is unsafe!
In a certain sense we shall have to
admit this to be true. To every grade
of lawbreaker, high or low; to a man
who would rob till a ballot box;
to the sneak or the bully; to the hypo-
critic and the humbug, Theodore Roose-
welt is more than unsafe; he is posi-
lively dangerous.
We could desire no better fortune,
In the campaign upon which we are
entering, than that the other side
should persist in their announced in
tention to make the issue upon Pres
ident Roosevelt What a Godsend to
our orators. It takes some study, some
research, to talk about the tariff or
the currency, or foreign policy. But
to talk about Roosevelt! it is as easy
as to sing 1.-The glory of the Graeme."
OF gentle birth and breeding, yet a
man of the people in the best sense;
with the training of a scholar and the
breezy accessibility of a ranchman; a
man of the library and a man of the
world; an athlete and a thinker; a
soldier and a statesman; a reader, a
writer. and a maker of history; with
the sensibility of a poet and the steel
nerve of a rough rider; one who never
did, and never could, turn his back
on a friend or an enemy. A man
whose merits are so great that he could
win on his merits alone; whose per-
sonality is so engaging that you lose
sight of his merits. Make their fight
on a man like thati What irreverent
caricaturist was it that called them
the Stupid party?