Middletown transcript. [volume] (Middletown, Del.) 1868-current, 1905-09-09
WASHINGTON LETTER

over President Roosevet's large par
in bringing the Russian and Japanes'
ENJOYS together is to be displayed in
popular welcome to the President whel
he returns to the city. Washington is oil
particularly good terms with Presiden
Roosevelt. He has been a resident of TIN
city so long aside from his term in thu
White House and many of the leading
citizens know him personally, SO that th'
man in the street feels that he is bette
acquainted with him than with any pres
dent for many administrations past. TIE
return welcome that is being planned
probably will not include parade or SCI
speeches but will consist in greeting the
President at the depot as was done two
years ago and escorting him to the White
House. 1t will be a personal tribute tc
his work for peace and will be the in
formal sort of greeting that the President
much prefers to more set and stilted af
fairs.
*.*
OF course the plaudits of the world that
have been showered on the President
have awakened talk as to whether the en-
thnsiasm was likely to carry him off hi:
feet and make him willing to accept g
nomination for third term. Now with
the majority of the machine politicians ol
Congress President Roosevelt is not po
litically popular. He is too straightfor.
ward and honest in rugged sort of way,
and the third term talk has already sci
tongues wagging and created storm ol
opposition in quarters that fear if the
President were renominated he would
carry all before him. In this connection
it will only be necessary to point to Presi
dent Roosevelt's statement last election
night when he said that under no circum.
stances would he consent to another
nomination. He said at that time that il
was wise provision that unwritten law
restricted the President to two terms, and
that while he had been only once elected,
he had been President at that time foI
three and half years and he proposed to
regret the substance and not the form Of
the precedent that had been honored
from the time of Washington. That was
a fiat statement that is not liable to be
misconstrued and those closest to the
President say that nothing will annoy
him more than any starting of third term
talk on the strength of the general appro-
baton that has been accorded him in con.
nection with his recent efforts at Ports.
mouth.
~
1t is quite possible however that the
President may have something to say a
little later as to the part he personally
played in the peace negotiations. Up to
the present, his part in the negotiations
has been well and properly guarded.
Alone and unadvised the President took
step never before attemped by any CHIEF
magistrate and threw himself between the
hostile ENJOYS till their instructions could
be changed by the two sovereigns to
whom he appealed. The text or sub.
stance of those notes to st. Petersburg
and Tokyo has never been divulged and
it probably will be well to keep them sec.
ret till after the treaty of peace has been
signed. But then there will be great
deal of pardonable curiosity to know just
what steps the President took that caused
such complete and sudden change in
the attitude of Japan. But that he bore
an important personal part is shown if by
nothing else in the kilograms of congratu-
lations that reached him from King Ed
ward, the Kaiser, the Czar himself and
other continental monarchs who ascribed
the conclusion of peace as direct tribute
to his Intervention. Great pressure has
been brought to bear on the President to
divulge the text of his notes to the two
rulers, and it is possible in the near future
that he may either in public address or
in an official statement say something
that will throw light on this interesting
chapter in modern diplomacy.
~
A very important step was taken to-day
in the convening in Washington of the
special board of consulting engineers who
will settle the question OF whether the
Panama canal shall be lock canal or
built at sea level. The board will con-
sist of Gen. W. Davis, Alfred Nobel, Will
liam Barclay Parsons, William II. Burr,
Henry L. Abbot, Frederick Sterns, Jos.
eph Ripley, and Isham Randolph, all
American engineers, Henry Hunter,
nominated by the British government;
Herr Eugene Tinkhauser, nominated by
Germany; NJ. Guerard, nominated by
France; NJ Quillenec, consulting engineer
of the Suez canal, and ]. w. Welcker,
nominated by the government of the
Netherlands. The board did not do
much at it's first meeting but it expects
to get its report ready for Transmission to
Congress in December. it is possible
that the engineers may visit the. scene of
the work before their report is rendered,
but number OF them have been there
already and as they have at their dis
posal the maps and surveys OF all the
previous commissions, it may not be
necessary for them to leave Washington.
1t is thought likely that Pr ,sident will
send very urgent message OIL the sub
ject OF the canal to congress, making some
definite proposal as to the work and de-
filming the sort OF canal that should be
built instead of leaving the question open
any longer. 1t is now understood that
the chief objection to sea level canal
will be that it will cost more and take
longer to build. The lock canal can be
built in from six to eight years while the
sea level one would take from ten to
twelve years. The question OF money
does not SO much stand in the way as the
time and it is said also that if the traffic
~ b., MN .o,,t fbn