The Somerset reporter., 1904-09-15
RooseveIt's Letter.

IN
~ sFey ef the Republican party
~. ering agency is TIE keynote of
communication, and he makes an
argument to sustain his proposition
beyond rt.futation. He believes party
to be It, to govern must have convictions
and lie proceeds to show that the Repub-
liean party has we'll defined convictions,
That 1t believes In the principles 1t pro-
fesses and that it considers It's policies
essential To the national welfare. He
shows that It's governmental efficiency
has been proved by its being equal not
only to anticipated tasks but to unfore-
seen emergencies like the Spanish war
and the isthmian canal situation. Its
actions, he says, speak louder than
words, and 1t intends to pursue In the
future the path it has marked out for IT.
self In the past. This condition of re-
sourcefulness, of knowing its own mind,
he contrasts " it'll the stiffness and un-
readiness OF the Democratic party, its
lack of convictions and its lack of
harmony.
He meets all the allegations and sub
terfuges of the opposition in a mastery
way that leaves no doubt of what he in
tended to say and have understood. He
says what he means and means what be
says, and he is never obliged to make a
supplementary statement to explain the
meaning OF the first. He not only meets
the attacks on his administrative acts,
but he does more than meet them de-
fensively; he meets them aggressiVely.
In treating the Panama canal issue, he
in part says:
Had not Panama been promptly
| recognized and the transit across the
isthmus kept open, in accordance with
our treaty rights and obligations, there
would have ensued endless guerrilla war;
fare and possibly foreign complications !;
while all chance Of building the canal
would have been deferred, certainly for
years perhaps for generation or more.
Criticism of the action In this matter Is
simply criticism of the only possible
| action which could have secured the
building of the canal; as we'll as the
peace and quiet which we were, by
treaty, bound to preserve along the line
| OF transit across the isthmus."
One of the acts alleged against him as
encroaching upon the pIerogatives Of
congress is the disability pension order !;
but he disposed of that effectively by
showing that the order was made In the
performance of duty imposed upon the
President by act of Congress requiring
the executive to make regulations to
govern the pension office In determining
who are entitled to pensions, that Presi-
dents Cleveland and Mckinley had done
the same thing, and that the present
regulation simply supplemented those
made by them.
In abiding to the question of the
monetary standard, on which the Demo-
cratic platform is silent, the President
considers that the Democrats have ap-
parently thought expedient to avoid any
committal on the subject but to leave
each individual to follow his own bent.
But, he says, laws can always be re-
voked and sit Is idle to say that the
monetary standard Of the nation has
been irrevocably fixed 80 long as the
party which at the last election cast
approximately 46 per cent OF the total
vote refuses to put In its platform any
statement that. the question Is settled
A determination to remain silent cannot
be accepted as equivalent to recsntatioB, !"
| Hence he holds that the only safe way
Is to keep the Republican party in
power. A logical conclusion certainly.
The President sludes to what has
been done in enforcing the law against
trusts and states that II his sdministra-
! ton Is continued IN power it will con-
tinue the policy OF enforcement OF the
law. Judge Parker has asserted that the
common law affords a complete legal
remedy against monopolies, but Mr.
| Roosevelt reminds him that there Is no
common law of the Uaited States, and
that it can be enforced only in and by
| states.
In the matter of protection, he says,
there is the same uncertainty. They de-
nounce protection as robbery Vu their
| platform and promise to act accordingly
II they receive power. But he points
out that some of them say they do not
mean this, while others urge that they
could not not do it anyway, because Of
the Republican Senate. II they are not
sincere they are unworthy of trust, bul
II they are sincere, "then their advent to
! power would mean domestic misfortune
and misery as widespread as that which
we saw ten years ago" He concludes
that II the American people show their
usual practical business sense they will
insist that when the tariff laws are modi-
fed, they shall be modified with the ut
most care and conservatism and by the
friends and not the enemies OF the pro-
tective system.
Those who have received the impress
sion that the President is a usurper, a
man Of strife and OF dangerous tenden.
cies should read the letter and especially
dwell on the closing paragraph:
1--WE stand for enforcement of the law
and obedience to the law; our govern
ment ia a government of orderly liberty,
equally alien to tyranny and anarchy
aud its foundatiou-stone Ia the observ.
ance of the law alike by the public