Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-25
He Who Must Be Obeyed.

The career of Theodore Roosevelt will fill
very brilliant page in history, but the
bright record will be ndelibly stained by
one very black blot-the brutal outrage
upon Mrs. Minor Morris-approved, If not
authorized by him. BY his tremendous
force of character he has accomplished
great work for the public good, but his
course in the Morris Incident they
call it at the White House, has shown that
he does not hesitate to exert all the same
strenuous energies in the execution of any
thing he has willed, when he is wholly in
the wrong. His Oldest. best and most sim
cere friends have noted with dismay his
rapidly growing disposition to exercise au-
tocratic power on all occasions, big or lit
tie. right or wrong. This display of arbi-
trary menace is shown in his answer to the
eloquent appeal of Dr. Morris for some re-
dress for the brutal treatment received by
his wife at the White House. He replies
to DR.. Morris with rude discourtesy. that
after enquiry he had satisfied himself that
Mrs. Morris received no rougher treatment
than she deserved. and adding that 1.-The
kindest thing that could be done to Mrs
Morris and her kinsfolk was to refrain from
giving any additional publicity to the cir
cumstances surrounding the CASE 1t is
evident that at the time the President ut
tered this cold-blooded threat to make 1t
unpleasant for Mrs. Morris If she persist
ed In her complaints he was wholly igno-
rant of the fact that the detective blood
hounds employed in the search had failed
after tracking every incident of her life to
find a scrap of evidence derogatory to her
character as pure. refined Christian wo-
man. He was equally unaware that the
f{iu,- ,azf,,I ,,I-t
House employees the Washington police de-
partment, Republican Chairman Rollins and
DR.. Fl. Bascom Weaver were concerned, for
the procurement of the much-needed proof
of her insanity, had utterly collapsed with
the abjeCt confession of Weaver that his
whole elaborate story of treating Mrs
Minor Morris for mental disease was a de-
liberate. unqualified lie from beginning to
end. only stopping short of perjury from
the fact that it was not sworn to.
The President must have been in the
same condition of ignorance when in the
nature of a contemptuous defiance of out
ragged public opinion he appointed the person
directly responsible for the brutal outrage
10 one of the best paying offices in his gift.
In the multiplicity of his duties the Presi-
dent NAV be excusable for many errors of
commission and omission but he can never
be excused for refusing reparation for an
act of Injustice committed unwlttingly per-
haps when his mind was occupied with
great national affairs. And it Is hard to
conceive of a greater injustice than that
-dss Ia Mrs. Norris usit III !t-itIIiis approval
Sincere as Theodore Roosevelt unquestion-
ably is in his declaration that he will not
accept a third term in the presidency it is
not unlikely that the emergency will arise
when the voice of the people will impera-
lively demand his services for another four
years term. In that event he may go on
Increasing his present national and world
wide fame. He may be accepted as the
authoritative international arbitrator. ex-
erung commanding influence for good at
home and abroad. But at some pause in
his feverish activities, when he takes a
glance backward. his conscience will tell
him that his treatment of Mrs Minor Morris
was a cruel unworthy act. Some time he
Will be heartily ashamed of it,