The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-10-03

ernor of New York MT. Roosevelt indeed procured a good civil service law and made many good appointments, but he consulted Boss Platt about public mat ters with regularity which amounted to a recognition of bossdom as legitl- mate institution. Whatever he may have granted or denied to the boss, nothing can be more certain than the fact that when MT. Roosevelt ceased to be gov ernor of his state, the power of the boss was not shaken in the least, but rather strengthened by MT. Roosevelt's implied recognition. And this continued while he was President. And there was Quay, the most interruptions and despotic boss of them all-called by President Roosevelt his "stanch and loyal friend" but who
 was also his influential friend, for if Quay did not wholly control under Presi- dent Roosevelt the whole Federal pat ronage In Pennsylvania, he controlled enough to maintain his absolute boss rule over that state entirely unimpaired- indeed rather fortified by the prestige of President Rooseveltis friendship.
 UnspeakabIe Addlcks.
 And there Is the unspeakable Addicks
 the would-be purchaser of the state of Delaware, whose name the legendary hODStNtlI NOuiu lldNt Spthtd Oul OI
 his mouth with such energy that all the
 world would have been thrilled with his
 loathing of the unclean thing, but now treate4 by the real Roosevelt with the gentleness of friendly neutrality, giving his heelers some patronage and his oppo- nents some, so that either may pretend | to have his countenance, and that Pres
 ident Roosevelt's apologlsts have hard
 work to prove that he Is not Addicks' ac- | tive ally.
 And there is Postmaster-G General Payne
 whose only distinction in public life was l that of a lobbyist and skillful and not | over-nlce political pipe-layer and wire
 butler. whose appointment to the control
 of the great patronage department of the 1 government, which has the largest field
 for political dleker, would have fitted the l cabinet of a political scehmer in the pres l identlal chair, but not the cabinet of the legendary Roosevelt. MT Payne showed l his true colors when he tried at the start | to discredit and to whistle down the in- | ouiry Into the corruption fostering In his l department.
 And there is Mir J. M. Clarkson, whom the legendary Roosevelt once denounced as one of the most obnoxious Of spells politicians in office, and whom the real Roosevelt. when presidentn made survey or of the port of New York, an officer
 having much to do with patronage.
 And ther Is Mr. Lou Payne, whom
 Governor Roosevelt, once for good req
 son, thrust out of the office of state
 insurance commissioner, and whom MT.
 Elihu Root characterized as a man who
 for many years had been a stench in
 the nostrlls of the people of the state
 of New York, and who was recently call ed to the white house as President Roose- velt's enemy but issued from the white
 house as President Roosevelt's friend and supporter, praisng President Roose- welt as a "great politician who had changed wonderfully and who must and will be reelected.
 Notorious Instances.
 Here I will stop. The most notorious instances suffice for illustration. It was said of President Cleveland that good citizens loved him for the enemies he had made" l apprehend 1t may be said of President Roosevelt that We have to distrust him for the friends he has made. It Is an experience as old as the world that the friendship of good men Is freely given when deserved but that the friend- ship of the wicked has It's price. When We find President Roosevelt In the com pany of such men We are far from suspecting that he loves such company and we must not forget that characters of this kind will hang on the skirts of every administration and offer their ser vices while pursuing their own selfish aims But I cannot admit what Secre- tary Taft offers In defence of President Roosevelt, that were he to ostraciZe, so far as conference with him Is concern ed. the members of ms party whom the mugwumps do not approve he would d. vide his party. tie his hands and destroy utterly his power for usefulness to the country"
 In the first place I must protest against the injustice MT. Taft does the president by suggesting that only the mugwumps possess the honesty to disapprove of the .'latts and Quays and Paynes. leaving 1t to be inferred that MT. Roosevelt does not disapprove of them. In the second place the question Is, as to the public good. net larger than the service he received from them.
 Roosevelt's Temperament.
 No, this strange letter was not q mere unguarded slip of tongue or pen, portray ing only d momentary impulse d fieeting fancy. It Was rather a manifestation of MT. Roosevet's real nature. He sees an object which appears to him good or de- sirable. His impetuous temperament urges him forward to attain this object and in the rush he is apt to despise anything standing in the way, to forget laws and treaties and precedents, and adverse rights and interests, and to regard ev- erybody opposing him as an enemy of the public welfare, if not as his own. He considers the Panama canal a good thing and to get it he rushed forward regard less of other obligations and of conse- quences. ie thinks 1t desirable that the South American republics should be hon est, and orderly, and prosperous, and forthwith he proclaims 1t to be our duty 10 make chem so, in manner insulting to them and dlscreditable to his own com mon sense. He thinks that the pensions should be raised, and straghtway he the matter out of the hands of congress, which was then considering it, and disposes of it himself in a manner which many of the best lawyers of the country hold to be flagrantly unconstitu- tional. Thus he joins to a naturally good heart 'lawless mind," as Professor Nell son has properly called 1t. Sometimes very little or ill-dlgested knowledge suf- fees him to reach the conclusions he desires. In the speeches he delivered in his campaign for the vice presidency he likened the Filipinos fighting for the in- dependence of their country to savage on the warpath to be treated He is now quite sure that we did not take the Philippines "at will" in face of the historic fact that we might have treated them just as We treated Cuba. He positively asserts that the voice of the United States would now count for nothing In the far east If we had abandoned the Philippines and re- fused to da what was done in China" while even superficial study of American