Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-01-23
A Familiar Lament

The action of the senate committee on
interoceanic canals in voting to investi-
gate the affairs of the Panama Canal
commission prompts the New York
Press to lament that it is "only one
part of the general plan of the railroads
TO discredit the president" to which
the New York World replies:
This lamentation has a familiar
sound. If congress undertakes to
maintain its constitutional powers in
the face of executive usurpation, if a
senator or representative ventures to
question the economic infallibility OF
the president, if there is opposition to
any of MIR. Roosevelt's melodramatic
excursions into world politics, we are
straightway told that the railroads are
again conspiring to discredit a great
and good man.
Mr. Roosevelt's influence has I'M
deniably been weakened; but the rail
roads did not do it and could not do it.
The responsibility rests with Theodore
Roosevelt alone.
The railroads did not make him tact
less; they did not make him impulsive;
they did not make him impatient of
constitutional restraints; they did not
make him Indifferent to the rights of
coordinate branches of the govern
ment; they did not make him intemper-
ate of speech; they did not make him
rash in action and contemptuous of
precedent; they did not impreguate
him with the germ of Little Fatherism.
The sources of Mr.. Roosevelt's weak
ened influence all lie within himself.
The influence of even Washington
would be weakened by such methods as
Mr.. Roosevelt's. Andrew Jackson him.
self never attempted to dominate con-
gress by more high-handed tactics than
Mr. Roosevelt has followed, and the
senate may justifiably remind the presi-
dent, as Douglas reminded Buchanan,
that Gen. jackson is dead"
Nothing the railroads could have done
to weaken the presidents influence
would be worthy of comparison with
his own achievements If Mr.. Roose-
velt's good policies are travelling to de-
feat along with the bad, he alone will
have been the architect of the disaster.
The plea that criticism of the execu-
tive is "a part of the general plan of
the railways to discre6lit" him has
familiar ring. When Mr.. La Toilette
was making his eight against the
corporations the only defense that was
made of his methods was that criticism
was prompted by the railways. When
it was disclosed that one of his lieuten-
ants had induced a book company to
contribute $4,000 to Mr.. La Follette's
personal campaign fund with the I'M
Outstanding that the company would
get value received from the administra-
ton, condemnation of the scandalous
transaction was denounced as the work
of the corporation" When the execu-
tive was criticised for deverting public
funds to the uses of political heelers,
it was the railways that inspired the
criticism! No protest could be offered
to the debauching of the public service
without the rejoinder being made that
it emanated from "the corporations
that sought to discredit the one man in
the state that could be depended upon
to defend the peoples interests from
corporate greed.
Mr.. Roosevelt seems to have taken
the popularity that he obtained by
championing a rate regulation measure
as authorization from the American
people to ride rough shod over the con-
stitution and to assume that in his own
person rest the powers of government
For congress to ignore his usurpations
would be betrayal of its obligations
to the people and sacrifice of its con-
stitutional powers. If Mr.. Roosevelt is
discredited by the determination of the
senate to preserve its constitutional
functions, the discredit is of his own
making, Let him respect the constitu-
ton and the laws and cease his letter
writing performances and it will not
be within the power of the senate or of
both branches of congress to discredit
him. Even popular idols have their
ations.-Milwaukee News.