The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-07-21
COACHING FOR A THIRD TERM.

"
Alfred Henry Lewis, once a Washing
ton correspondent. later an intimate of
Boss" Croker. and now editor of a
magazine, makes a perfervid plea pub
hshed by the Saturday Evening Post.
calling on Roosevelt to run for the
presidency again. The article bears all
the earmarks of a contribution written
10 order, and is about the slushiest bit
OF adulation that has seen print in long
years; even Jacob Riis could not APP
proach it. though he has been alone
in his class heretofore when writing
about the president
The Lewis effusion is based primarily
on the assumption that Roosevelt is not
only the ablest man in America, but
really the only honest and able man in
public life today. Listen to this:
1T is because 1 deem highly of Mr..
Roosevelt that 1 am bound TO quarrel
with his determination not TO have an
other term. 1t is for such reason I
warn the public that its rights are par
amount, and he must continue should it
so prefer; also, that, in coming TO such
preference, the public is not to regard
what he may personally desire. :
Mr.. Roosevelt is the president for the
hour in which we live. He is abreast
of his day; he was born in the present
tense. His warword is BE ready He
has initiative. An artist of the actual,
he is as capable of making as of follow
ing a precedent. He listens to the peo-
pie. He makes a cult of the ballot,
knowing it for the sword and shield OF
freedom etc, ad nauseam.
A careful perusal of the two pages
devoted to this dTivel fails to reveal
recognition of merit in any other Amer
lean. If Mr.. Lewis is to be believed,
Roosevelt is the Republican party, and
no other individual in its ranks meas
ures up to- the presidential standard.
He is the only simon-pure Friend of the
People, the one genuine patriot, the sole
and only apostle OF the trust buster,
and there is no guile in him. Shy as he
is. 10th to accent another term in the
office which has been such a burden
to him, he is to be grabbed by the slack
of the trousers and the scruff of his
deyouring beasts of the body polite
and compelled to do the King Arthur
act, rescuing the maiden Columbia from
her assailants
Waiuino any dpha 70 IN tho
dents qualities, the nation would be
in a bad way if all the Post article were
half true. 1t does not seem TO have oc-
Cured TO this Boswell that Mr.. Bryan,
for instance, might possibly be quite as
able as Roosevelt, infinitely broader,
certainly as honest and unquestionably
more stable in his political convictions.
Nor does the essayist consider that
Roosevelt's most popular efforts were
but weak echoes of the program Mr.
Bryan outlined and battled for when
the president and his associates were
being elected by the very forces he has
since repudiated as far as he dare
Reviewing the whole Roosevelt career
III Inc w mite I1OuStf OIlc SUN ldllS "
find foundation for the belief that he
has a monopoly of any virtue or a
copyright on the only theory of just
government. He is an astute politician |
AS an executive he has constantly en-
croached on the functions of the legis- |
lative and judicial branches of the gov
eminent in defiance of constitutional |
limitations His Initiative" on which /
such stress is laid has consisted in |
adopting Democratic policies and brand /
ing them as his own; in fighting the /
trusts ostentatiously and perfectiIg an /
alliance with Aldrich for political pur-
poses; in questioning the Veracity of |
every man who gave him a chance 10 /
disagree with him; in preaching the ne
cessity of high standards in the public
service and appointing unfit men when
there seemed to be political necessity
for such appointments.
Mr.. Lewis pictures the president as
fighting the Money Power, in capitals,
and he draws the picture seriously The
world knows Mr.. Roosevelt was elected
by the same Money Power, whatever
that NAV mean. Like his Republican
and Democratic predecessors, he ac-
cepted the campaign contributions of
such as would give, though he has ig-
nored the obligation such acceptance
ordinarily implies. 1t is a matter OF ie-
gal record that the insurance compa-
MES contributed literally to his cleo
ton. though he attacked Judge Parker
for making the charge during the cam
paign and has never apologized for his