The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1906-07-27
ROOSEVELT USES DEMOCRATIC
THUNDER.
Special correspondence.

Washington, d. c., July 81.
1t is a far cry to the next demo-
cratic national convention, but all the
politicians who come to the national
capital are talking nothing else but
the fight that is two years off and
the general concensus of opinion is
that if the convention were to be held
tomorrow William ]. Bryan would be
nominated by reclamation. Well why
shouldn't he be-. He is the inventor
of everything that has been asked
for by Theodore Roosevelt; of every
thing that was passed by the last ses-
sion of the congress that was of any
peculiar interest to the people, and
why should not the inventor Of a
machine be acclaimed by the people
as well as the man who uses it?
Everything that Roosevelt has advo-
Gated in his message to congress that
has been worth shucks to the people,
is democratic doctrine. 1t was advo-
Gated by either democratic national
convention in the platform, or else
some democrat has blazed the way by
speech in congress on the subject,
long time before Roosevelt ever
thought of saying a word in favor of
anything that was passed by the con-
gress.
A glance at any democratic national
platform since 1896, or the Conges-
sional Record since 1898, will prove
the truth of my assertions. AS long as
year and five months before Roose-
welt ever said a word about railroad
rate regulation, a speech was made
on the floor of the house by the Hon.
John Sharp Williams, of Mississippi,
read exactly as the message of
Roosevelt on the subject and nobody
doubts that from it Roosevelt got
much if not all the inspiration when
he wrote the message asking congress
to enact railroad rate legislation. If
he had stuck to his text and insisted
on the same policy advocated by Mr..
Williams we would have had a law
that would have had teeth but he
went back on all and everything
that he had asked for and on every
body who had trusted him in the
transaction.
People seem to think that should
Bryan be nominated by the demo
Gratis that Teddy will be forced to run
by his party as the only man who
would stand any chance to beat him.
Those who know Roosevelt at short
range know that if such a PROPOSE
ton is put up to him Tedy will accept
it, no matter what he has said to the
contrary, and many people believe
that he is working to that end right
now. 1t would give the people of the
entire country chance to choose be-
tween the genuine thing and the
pinchbeck. For If ever there was
piece of pinchbeck in the shape of
politician in the whole range of hu.
man history, it is the man now m the
White House. And | speak adyisedly
when I say politician. He is one of
the best politicians who ever sat in
the White House, and one of the luck
lest. He came as near being dragged
from his pedestal upon which the peo-
pie have placed him. when he tackled
ne wriggled out of that predicament
by jumping on the meat packers,
whom everybody hate AID despise.
lie knew that fact and played or it
for all it was worth and the trick
won. Everybody Immediately forgot
the railroad rate incident and the fact
that Roosevelt had played double
game and shown bad faith and in the
end had surrendered to the roads and
gave them the broad court review,
and at once began heaping praises OF
his head for hitting the hated meat
trust. Have you ever thought of that?
Do you remember that the two
things followed on each others heels?
Well, that's the way he played it on
the people and they swallowed the
bait, hook and sinker
G. A. EDWARDS.