Durango semi-weekly herald., 1906-07-05
ONE GREAT MAN AND MANY LEG
ISLATORS.

The first session of the 59th con
gress of this republic will form a con
spicuous part in the economic histor,
OF the nation. Very likely the secont
session will be equally as important
for President Roosevelt has given al
inkling of what he seeks to have done
TO maintain the equilibrium and Sc
cure just distribution of the fruits
of the remarkable period OF prosper
ity the nation has enjoyed
Congress itself will not get praise
or blame for what has been done and
for what may be accomplished this
winter. The historian will not ran.
rack the Congressional Record for
speeches or excerpts of speeches to
print. No man in either branch of
congress Will be embossed in the
pages OF the book. No one deserves
II. There is NOT a member of house
or senate of commanding force or in.
tellect sufficient to dominate. The
men OF mark of few years ago have
been discovered to be men of clay.
the yellow press as the real power
behind the scenes have been dropped
into the rut. The reactionaries have
made sorry stand.
Hero worship is thought to be out
OF date; there are those who insist
that 1t should have no place. in re.
public.
But in what manner shall the mo-
mentous affairs of recent months and
days be dealt with? 1t would be
raise to give the praise TO congress.
That large body had the good sense
to go with the tide. The lower
house had to do so because 1t is re-
newed every two years. The senate.
the "bulwark against hasty legisla-
ton,' turned tail without giving the
states opportunity to assert them
selves.
II was an exempliiication of one man
power History is the biographies of
great men," Congressional history
of 1906, the most significant of any
peace congress the country has ex-
perienced, is y part of the life of
Theodore Roosevelt.
The people had most important
hand, however. They stood like a
stone WALL behind the president.
They never wavered or quivered. The
enemy was not given an opportunity
to intervene and cause distrust.
A modification in the hero worship
of Roosevelt must be allowed. I'm
like other great men, he had not to
die to be esteemed; and he has not
had to experience the "ingratitude OF
republics"-rather the contrary
Roosevelt is not deml-god He is
human and thorough American. He
has his likes and dislikes and his
idiosyncrasies. But he is the best
equipped man for the office that
could be found. 1t has been the his
tory OF this republic that the crisis
raises the man. In the case at bar
the man was little ahead of the
events and prevented crisis, which,
given headway, might have been tre
mendous in its results.
Before congress adjourns IL will
have passed the railroad rate bill and
1t will have taken such steps as will
make the completion of the Panama
canal certainty. The houses OF
congress were forced into doing these
things. They were required to pass
the bill to place alcohol as a COM
petitor with the Standard Oil com.
pany products in commerce. A pure
food" bill will result.
Take these measures and conceive
the forces that were arrayed against
their passage and then see how easy
It appeared to be to put them on the
books without the Intervention of the
nation in agitation and denunciation!
Roosevelt the statesman declared
them necessary for the changed con
ditions-the quiet economic revolu
ton of the last decade, including the
quarter billion, half billion and one
billion dollar trusts and the abolition
of competition-and, as he had the
nation with him as it has been with
no other president since the earliest
days, senate and house concurred.
Bat without Roosevelt the people at
large could not have had hearing.
Make-shifts would have been prof
fered by the Legislators. This man,
laughed at as an accident, feared as
one without balance, called the Man
on Horseback" the 'Imperator' and
so forth, did these things without
panic, without turning hair" in the
country's prosperity and without en-
dangering his own prosperity. His
enemies have called him dangerous,
a monomaniac. crazy" They are not
so far wrong. If he were safe and
sane" he would not be Roosevelt the
Rough Rider and president best be-
loved.-Denver Republican.