The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-12-13
LUCKY ROOSEVELT.

4 society has been incorporated un-
der the name of "'Thc Roosevelt Third
Term National League; It's purpose
being TO force upon President Roosevelt.
a denomination to his present high of.
fee in 1905. The ground asserted by
the incorporators is that it is necessary
for the people to insist upon Mr., Ruose-
welt $ denomination and obligatory upon
| him 10 accept because: We know him
TO be honest.
In answer to all this hysteria, the
| Chicago Chronicle succinctly shows that
the very reason why President Roose
Welt should not be renominated, why
he should not accept, and why the peo-
pie should cease 10 labor for the i'm
proper and impossible is because: I'VE
know him to be honest.
The Chronicle says that Mr., Roose-
welt has reiterated again and again that
he would not accept and, ''by his own
language as an honest man, he has put
it beyond the pale of possibility
And yet despite the impossibihty, de-
spite the fact that Mr.. Roosevelt has
announced with all the emphasis of his
emphatic soul that under no clrcum-
stances would he permit himself to be
renominated, and despite the heavier
handicap that lot of foolish friends
have congregated together TO force an
event which will come without effort if
at all-it is not at all improbable that
Theodore Roosevelt will permit himself
to be nominated for the second tune
with the expectation of serving longer
term in the Presidency of the United
States than any other man that ever
lived
Mr.. Roosevelt is an iconoclast; he is
destroyer Of old landmarks; he does
what he wills to do; and he is one of
those fortunate individuals who win
public favor by the acts and words
which, coming from another. might IN"
cite revolt against his leadership and
even to impeachment The indefnablc
quality which Mr.. Roosevelt possesses is
not mere honesty, for that is easily un-
derstood and has been held by nearly or
all of the Presidents who have preceded
honest-and determined that all other
men IN National public life shall live
according TO the same law of integrity,
so far as he can enforce IT. But this
would not be enough, since other occu-
pants of the White House have shown
the same character and the same pur-
pose. He is magnetic, forceful. But
other Presidents have awakened admi-
ration for these same qualities. Mr.,
Roosevelt is blessed with something be-
yond honesty and magnetism-a some
| thing which confers upon its possessor
an unreas soning and unaccountable pop
ularity and a public favor for all he
saws and docs-rigbt or wrong, and not
| infrequently the latter. James G.
Blaine had the devotion of millions who
had never seen his face nor heard his
voice. Other men who have been great
| figures as statesmen, as orators, as
artists, and AS tinanciers have been able.
for some undehnable reason, to attract
mankind in the same way President
| Roosevelt is the one mortal Of his gen
Grafton in our country who seems to be
most highly favored in this regard.
When he is right the people worship his
wisdom. When he is wrong the people
worship his honesty and fearlessness.
When he is consistent The people wor-
ship his consistency. When he is incon-
sistent, the people adore his inconsst-
ency When he engages in contention,
as he frequently does. the people wor'
ship his combativeness. When he coun-
sells quietude, the people worship him AS
a peacemaker. When he disproves the
utterance of some man in public life,
that man is denounced as wicked,
willful liar and scoundrel by the people;
and when President Roosevelt is him
self disproyed, the people affectionately
smile upon him and say that he has
committed a mere little innocent mis-
take which makes him all the more
loyabIe. When any Of his opponents
step aside from their well defined duties
and prerogatives, the people charge 1T
as officious interference, When he butts
into anything and everything, from the
selection of q Catholic cardinal to the
regulation of football games, the people
call him an ll-comprehcnding and IN
spircd genius.
How long this mighty favor will last
no one can say. Other men have had
it and other men have lost it. But at
present the prospect is that President
Roosevelt will continue to be the popu-
lar idol long past 1908, and IN that
significant year will find himself con
fronted by the necessity to eat his own
words Of denial or else plunge his party
into doubt and difficulty and spread sor-
row over all the land and it's people
including himself.
Notwithstanding the expressed inten
ton to regard every man as an insolent
enemy who mentions him for what i:
called third term in the Presidency. II