The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1906-01-19
FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1906.
ROOSEVELT.

Theodore kOOSeNclt shOuiu advocate
Federal supervision of insurance com
panies with Chauncey Depew, Thoma
f. Ryan, aud John f. Dryden? TN,
only one Of these i'm whom the peopl,
have any faith is Roosevelt. Tn,
opinions Of the Others are not regard
ed as disinterested.
Why does he keep company will
such men on this matter reinsurance
Because Roosevelt, daft ON the subject
OF Federal supervision, believes that
the mere enrolment Of a Federal law
will bring aboutmillennial conditions,
while Ryan and Dryden, financial
freebOOters, and Depew, a tool and a
CRATER, believe that such supervision
will give them and their partners in
pelf an unlimited license To exploit
the people.
Roosevelt, like any man above the
ordinary, is not one personality, bat
several. I'm primitive way ne is
honest as the day is long He is not
logically honest, but impulsiyely SO.
His motives are guided and controlled
by impulse, not 10y reason. He there
fore makes mistakes that are not only
serious, but surprisingly Inconsistent
But he is seldom conscious of them;
and when he is, he sometimes lacks
the manliness 10 acknowledge them.
lie made a great, an immoral blunder
in the case Of Paul Morton, now presi-
dent Of the Equitable. His friend
ship for him caused Roosevelt TO over
ride the determination OF two able
United States attorneys to prosecute
him for violating the law in regard to
rebates. Few men who have studied
Morton's career will invest one dollar
Of insurance in the Equitable as long
as he is at the head Of the company.
Yet Roosevelt believes he did right.
He cannot see the absurdity Of his
declaration that when a corporation
violates the law, il liz not the man i'm
control Of the corporation who should
be punished, but the corporation it,
itself "Don't put Paul Morton UNI
der arrest, says Roosevelt i'm effect;
"put the railroad tracks and engines
and workshops under arrest and haul
them into court"
His treatment Of Whitney, Of Mas
sachusetts was altogether unfair and
unmanly, yet he does not seem to see
it. But his treatment of Jefferson
Dayis was unmanly, discourteous, UNI
gentlemanly, and indeed contemplate.
Yet to this day he has made no sign
Of apology for his treatmsnt of a man
whom he is bound to know he wrong
ed. This is the weakest trait in the
several Roosevelt personalities, and it
is very serious weakness. Doubtless
he will in time make some amends. !
SO he did to the SOnth about Booker
Washington, though he has never
changed his mind. Impulsiye as he
is, his amends appear TO be studied |
and timed.
ROosevelts ideas of law are crude /
and vague. lie belongs to that type |
Of man that believes that what he
thinks is right is right, and is there
fore lawful. He believes on the one
hand that If the law is TO cure a poll
teal evil, and on the other hand that
TO pass law is to cure a political evil,
and on the other hand that if the law
is in the way Of what is lin his opin-
iOn) right, il should be brushed aside.
He uncOnsciOusly follows that accur-
sed New England doctrine; when the
written law is in the way, appeal to
the Higher Law-the law Of the fana-
tic, the law OF the casuist Sumner and
Of the anarchist, John Brown. Sum
ner's motives were pure. So were
Browns. So are Roosevelts.
Is Roosevelt a great man? lie is so
proclaimed by some Of the magazines
which declare any man great whosuc-
Feeds whether in business orburglary
q Go back over the files of several of
the leading magazines, like the Worlds
Work, for example, and notice the
Illustrated articles Of adulatiOn on
Corey, who is trying to put away his
awful wife for an actress; Morgan. ,
he Wall Street buccaneer; John A.
Mccall, CRATER Of the funds of widows d
md orphans, whose picture until re-
emily hung in the Offices Of every
gent Of the New York Life Insurance
company, the ideal toward which
gents looked; Chauncey Depew, tool
4 the Vanderbilt system, and CRATER; 81
Paul Morton, viOlator Of law; James
partner in financial crime Il
With the Rockefellers and Henry II.
rogers; Mark Hanna, the Robin
lood Of finance and politics; and
fairbanks, the size Of whose check y,
nd the type Of whose politics are in "a
ccOrd with the ink that flows in his nj
ems. They are all great men-accord m
" to some Of the magazines. But III
ROOSEVELT is not in this class. He
ould not betray a trust; he would not IN
Splolt railroad; he cares nothing for 10
ches unless he has honestly earned 90
lem, and then only for the ordinary 90
'mforts they bring. For living he se
Oald dig ditches-sn dig them we'll y,
fore he would gamble in futures. 70
e hates Rockefeller and his type; he mn
lted and loathed Mark Hanna; and III,
, despises Fairbanks. Such men of
e not worthy to unlatch his shoes. r,l
a great man he is, great in his ele- ev
entail courage and honesty. and i'm -,