The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-04-16
KEEP CLOSE WATCH
REPUBLICANS INTERESTED IN
 DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE.
Realize the Radical Element will Not Control and the St. Louis Nominee Will Have
 Chance to Win.
Advertiser Bureau,
 Colorado Building.

Washington, April 15.
 There is no doubt at all that the Re- publicans are more interested in what the Democrats propose to do in the way of ticket-choosing and platforms making this year than they have been in twelve years.
 In 1896 The Democrats. before the Chi cago convention. seemed to be wholly without leadership or common purpose in the kind of candidate they desired. In 1900 the candidate of 1896, who was over wheiningly defeated. was the same and the Republicans felt no concern about their ability to repeat their victory.
 In both these campaigns they had a popular candidate in William Mckinley. a candidate who not only held the full strength of his party but enlisted many thousands of votes outside of 1t. He carried almost the entire independent vote of the country because to their mind he had given a conservative administra- tion to the country. doing nothing that disturbed the progressive course of bus mess affairs. There hal been nothing in any of his acts as affecting the sections that had not rather tended to draw them into a closer intimacy and promote na- tional unity and mutual regard.
 The hand of death shifted the horo- scope of the Republican party. Roose- welt, succeeding to the Presidency, i'm mediately began to devote himself main ly to the task of accomplishing his own nomination. In order to impress the country with a notion that he was a man of big deeds as well as ready speech, he did many things that almost took away the breath of his own party while they subjected him to general criticism, not merely of his political enemies. but of the entire independent press of the coun- try. Yet he had by unhesitating and un- sparing use of every possible particle of power In him as the chief executive offl- cer, with the supreme right of dispensing patronage. so marshalled his strength as to assure beyond doubt his nomination by his party for President.
 Certain of his nomination for President by the Republican National Convention. MT. Roosevelt set about performances that he deemed would most powerfully commend him to the most voters of the country He had a certain shrewdness of discernment that admonished him that the public conscience was ready to con- done anything reprehensible so long as it promised commercial returns.
 He saw that the country was eager for an isthmian canal and was impatient over delay. He did not hesitate to use the government to overawe a friendly country that appeared to obstruct the commencement of the canal during his administration. Hence the Panama revo- Iutlon, the recognition of the republic of Panama and the headlong haste with which the whole transaction was rem dered notorious.
 His next most fragrant disregard of law and the most unquestionabie contempt for the constitution's guarantees to Con gress was the pension order, the mere signing of his name opening the vaults of treasury to provide campaign funds for his election. He has posed as a trust buster and he proposes to fight the trusts not merely with the tools furnished him but with money that belongs to all the people for any use except to afford him sinews for a selfish war of conquest in promotion of his own ambition. These things have given the best men of his own party the gravest cause for concern.