Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1905-11-20

BISMARCK DAILY TRIBUNE,
Roosevelt would like to make such
a trip, but until air-ship navigation
has become little better understood
it is not likely he would risk it.; at
least not until after he leaves the
White House. 1t is true he went
down in the submarine against tho
protests of his advisors, but tine situa-
ton there was little different. He
| is commander-in-chief of the army
and navy and men under his COM
mand made submarine voyages in
their line of duty. He felt that he
should not fear to go where men
were sent by his order. It is not
likely any army or naval officer will
be ordered to make an air-ship
journey, certainly not IN the time of
the present administration.
If President Roosevelt can keep
from mixing up in the New York
political squabble,, he will be even a
better diplomat than he mas been
credited with being. The time is
close at hand when he has got to.
made some appointments, and he can
not make them without offending
either Senator Platt or Governor
Odell or both. ~
1t is hardly within the range of
possibility that Plat and Odell could
agree on any important federal ap-
pointment. If the president accepts
the recommendation of one of them,
the other is bound to be offended. If
he goes entirely outside of their
recommendations and makes selec-
ton of his own, both will be estranged
and no president can afford to have
the open enmity of the two most
powerful men in his own party in his
| own state. Especially is this true
when the state happens to be New
York. .
A year or so ago the president made
appointments in Pennsylvania which
he admitted in private were distaste-
full to him. In this instance, how
ever, the appointments had been
agreed upon by Senator'S Quay and
Penrose and it would have meant
party disruption to have set aside
their will, especially upon the eve of
a presidential election. No such stu
alton exists in the case of New York
appointments; but the president has a
big fight on hand elsewhere, and
needs all the help he can get. No
one supposes that Senator Plat is in
sympathy with the presidents rail-
road rate or tariff views; but patron
age is everything to Plat, and he
might be held in line If allowed to
dictate the distribution in his own
bailiwick.
| The first contest is likely to come
from the selection of United States
marshal for the southern district of
New York. William Henkel, the
present incumbent, is reported to be
a "Tammany Republican" and is not
to be reappointed. A new district at
torney also is to be appointed and
over both of those jobs Plat and
Odell are at loggerheads.
Secretary Taft is having a hard
time getting from under his weary
burden. First, he tried to shift the
Panama canal OFF onto the shoulders
OF Secretary Root. Root tried the
job while Taft was in the Philippines,
but refused to take it as a permanent
gift. Now it is proposed that the
state department shall be given juris-
diction over the Philippines and the
rest of our insular possessions. Root
became familiar with Philippine ad-
/ ministration while at the head of the
war department and although Taft is
even more familiar with the affairs
OF the islands, 1t is argued no harm
could come from the transfer.
The fact is that the secretary of
war is overloaded. A few years ago
he had only to look after a little army
OF $4,000 men, all of them at home.
Today he has vastly larger army
scattered around the world; has the
administration of Philippine civil af-
fairs on his hands, and now has been
charged with the monumental task
OF digging the ditch across the 18th
mus. In less than ten years his
work has increased one hundred fold
and it is now almost beyond the
capacity of any one man to accom-
plish it.
There will be no river and harbor
bill passed at the coming session of
4 congress. Chairman Burton says SO.
and what Burton says generally goes.
Two years ago Burton said no river
! and harbor bill should pass, but the