The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-12-12
THE MALIGN PLOT.

many of President Theodore Roose-
Welt s friends and confdantes into liars
and Doors. The latest proof of this
mahgn and calculated influence by the
occult powers upon his affairs comes
in the form Of betrayal of personal
confidence by Bellamy Storer, late en-
bassador of the United States TO Aus
tra Hungary, Mr. Storer was the
trusted and personal friend of Theo
dorc Roosevelt; Mrs. Storer was equally
intimate in his regard, for he ad-
dressed her as My Dear Maria, and
she wrote to him as ''Dear Theodore -
In a controversy, which is now fresh
ened TO the public mind by Storer7s g
defense of his wife, Mr.. Storer exposed
certain correspondence which passed
between the President and himself;
and in his denunciation thereof, Presi
dent Roosevelt assures the world that
Mr. Storer has acted in peculiarly
ungentlemanly way-Storer g presen-
tatlon els untrue his statement is
false" and he has been guilty of "pe-
cular perfidy," all according to the
chaste rebuke administered by the for.
merly "Dear Theodore. -
This is tough. Bellamy Storer was
once recognized as a gentleman of fine
character and worthy eminence. Even
if he had been less than this, one
would have thought that contact of in
innate friendship with President Roose-
welt would have impaired to him all
of the desirable qualities-that, after
sitting under the Roosevelt tutelage
for a period of years he could not be
other than the beau ideal of chivalry
But after all, he is ''peculiarly un-
gentlemanly' wretch; and "My dear
Maria has ceased TO be my dear
Maria" and has degeneratei into a
mischievous' person, writing letters
which she has g no business whatever
to write acting in "an unwarrant
ably ofiicious' manner, showing her
self - unwise and improper" and
arousing the Presidential ''indigna
ton
And so the Storers are dismissed
branded, as they deserve to be, as per-
sons quite unworthy of consideration
by the American people. Mr.. Storer,
call "My dear Bellamy," and Mrs.
Storer, whom it was his pride and pleas
ure to call my dear Maria,' are set
off among the outcast, to weep and
wall and guash their teeth. 1t is all
due TO the trustfulness of President
Theodore Roosevelt s nature. He be
lieved in these people, and because of
his firm belief they were enabled to
conjoin in the nefarious plot of Fate
to place him in an annoying position
before mankind.
And then there was Hon William
e. Chandler, formerly devoted to the
President and under whose advice and
personal encouragement the President
wrought out much of his early National
career William +. Chandler had been
Secretary of the Navy and Senator of
the United States for many years; his
name was household word in the Uni
ted States; no one had ever charged
that he was falsi6er, But he sud
denly developed into a liar: it must be
so, for he made square issue with Mr..
was clear that one of the two had ut
tered a mendacity-there is but one
possible conclusion, and that is that
in his old age, after sixty years of
truthfulness, William z. Chandler had
also conjoined with Fate to entrap Mr..
hesitated to falsify in order to achieve
that wicked end against his bosom
friend.
One would have thought that even if
Mr.. Chandler had been by nature un.
truthful, his daily, hourly communion
with Mr.. Roosevelt for so many years
would have purified and refined his ma
ture, would have inspired him with
desire TO live up to the Roosevelt ideal
of good manners and truthfulness, But
the President cond emned him, and very
properly, and he too was exiled from
the Presence to dwell in outer dark
ness. 1t will not even console Mr..
Chandler nor will it restore him to pub
lie confidence TO have his State return
him to the Senate, as now seems the
likely event.
And then there was Whitney Of Mas
sachusetts, and there was Bailey of
Texas; then there were the newspaper
men who We're forbidden the White
House on account of their misrepresen-
tations; then there was Wallace. Chief
Engineer Of the Panama canal. and
added to these an Indefinitely long list
of men, all of whom turned suddenly
perfdious. untruthful, ungcntlcmanly,
filled with all manner of guile-all for
the sake of plotting with the Fates to
derogate from the dignity and mar the
peace Of mind of the President of the
United States,
Happily Mr.. Roosevelt can rise above
all these untoward events and these
malign personalities. AS President he
| is more powerful than ambassadors and
newspaper men and Senators and engi-
! neers; and as Theodore Roosevelt he
is more resistless than Fate.