The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-07-07
Will He Have ROOstVe|ps Sup-
 port for Presidency?
HANDICAPPED BY TRUSTS
As the Greatest Corporation Lawyer In the Country He Will Not Have Such Easy
 Sailing.
BY wATrERsoN sTEALEY.

Washington, July 6.-(Special) )-The de- cision of Elihu Root of New York to ac- cept the Secretary of State portfolio is more commented upon here in connection with the struggle over the republican presidential nomination three years hence than any other feature. Mir Root will make an excellent Secretary of State which about covers the mere fact of ap- pointment. There has never been a ques- tion of his ability.
 MT. Root, who upon his retirement from the cabinet was styled by Pres ident Roosevelt 'the greatest of war sec cretaries,' notwithstanding that the po- sitions had been held by such men as James Monroe, John C. Calhoun, William l.. Marcy. Jefferson Davis and others). resigned for business reasons" Many declare that the same reasons which ex- isten then exist now and that he would not again become a member of the cab met unless 1t was with the understand ing that he would have the Roosevelt influence in the republican national con vention in 1908.
 Politicians Do Not Agree.
 Politicians are by no means united upon the theory that 1t is an advantage for a candidate to be in the cabinet. For instance Secretary of the Treasury Shaw plans to retire this fall in order that he will be unhampered in his presidential nomination seeking So considering the fact that Root retired several months ago when he was unquestionably Roose- velts right hand man and now decides to again take up the thread points strongly to the accuracy of the report that he accepts the appointment with the under- standing that the President will give him his assistance from now until the bal loting is over at the convention.
 There is no doubt that the President is going to take an active part in the work leading up to the convention and 1t can be depended upon that if he de- cided to go in for Root, as is generally be- lieved. he will let no opportunity escape to influence the convention in that direc- ton. The last session of Congress indi- cated pretty clearly that the President is gradually drifting away from the leg islative body and it is more than likely that any man the President picks up will have the opposition of most of the re- publican members. The control of the convention may narrow down to simply a fight between the President and Con- gross.
 Intimate With Trusts.
 Then again as regards MT. Root, he is a fine corporation lawyer and is now inti- nately connected with some of the big gest trusts and railroads in the country. Only a few weeks ago he was engaged by the tobacco trust whose secrets he IS today trying to prevent becoming the property of the department of justice, over which his soon to be- colleague, At torney General Moody, presides. In his campaign for the nomination MT. Root is going to hear great deal about his business connections and 1t will undoubt- edly prove serious handicap to him. He possibly believes. however, that the Pres ident's speeches against the trusts will do away with the suspicion in the popu- lar mind that he Is in any way controlled by them. At the same time it is realized that the sentiment against the corpora tons and trusts is daily becoming stronger throughout the country and even with President Roosevelt at his back it is going to be hard work to nominate a typical trust candidate such Root and harder work still to elect him;
 So in the big fight over the nomination Root, with the President behind him, may perhaps have the start, but three year race is a long one and Taft and Fairbanks, not to mention Foraker, Can non and others are by no means out of the running. Taft perhaps will make no objection to getting out of Roots way IT he can have the chief justice Of the su- preme court, but 1t may be that the brainy democrat who now occupies that position will retain his present good health and give a democratic president the opportunity of naming his successor.