Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1907-05-15
FROM WASHINGTON

know President Roosevelt, at short
range, to read about his popularity
In the country at large, and the
further away tue more popular hc
seems To- be. There must be some
thing in that saying that distance
lends enchantment TO the view" "
The closer you get 10 the man the
less you will like him. for | do not
know Of one lovable trait he pos
sesses, although he catches many
men by his impulsive ways O doing
things. He impu,sively tells one
man that he will do what is wanted
OF him, but the minute tie man 5
back is turned and the man who
does not want that thing done gets
his ear, hc just as impulSivcly goes
back on what he said to the otter
man. and tells the second man that
it shall be as he wishes. Thus. he
j, ali things to all men and nothing
very long.
He has made many grandstand
plays about doing things that the
people wanted, but name one thing
he has done or advocated that has
been of any practical benefited to
the people. and / will name you q
number that he has advocated and
done that have been or would have
been detrimcnt Co the interest of
the people. What good. so far.
has the railroad rate bill been to
the consumers and shippers of the
countryl
Every suit that has been brought
against the combinations or the
railroads, has been brought through
the Elkins law or the Sherman
antitrust law, two laws that we're
on the statute books before the
enactment of the railroad rate law
and simply never had been en-
forced.
The people of this country have
srot the idea into their heads that
Mr. Roosevelt is after the rich, the
predatory rich. and shat he is Civ
ing them taste of the big stick.
Well, hc is not hurting them so
bad as he is the people who are de-
pendent on the growth of the rail-
roadsan their expansion and their
ability to haul the crops TO market.
Mr.. Roosevelt did not hesitate TO
take the money of the predatory
rich, during the last presidential
campaign, when he was check by
jowl with the whole bunch ofthem
and hobnobbing with them as TO
the best way to win the election.
After the election, however, he
turns on them and in order to make
a grandstand play, he asserts that
he is going 20 do things TO them
which scares capital into hiding
and the railroads cannot borrow
any money to make extensions or
build new lines that are needed to
haul the commerce of the country.
Regulation and control of rail
roads is all right. It's democratic
policy and democratic doctrine
stolen by republican administra-
ton to make it popular. and its
popularity today is based on poll
cics, doctrines, and ideas stolen
from the democratic platform.
The democratic platform, however,
never advocated confiscation of
property. or tried to weld the big
stick to scare capital off the face of
the earth. That is what Roosevelt
has done in order to create little
cheap popularity.
You can take my word for it,
the veneer will be washed off this
political tin deity before his term
expires and the people will know
him as do the correspondents in
Washington and the members of
Congress. He has not a dozen
friends in Congress, on either side
OF the political fence, but they are
afraid to say their soul is their own.
ON account of the patronage strick
he weilds. They, also, are playing
political game, and they dare not
express their honest opinions. If
they had tbs Goa gre to do so, they
would be astcunded to know that
four-fifths OF the men to whom
they express them would agree
with them, and thus the so-calIed
popularity OF the President would
vanish like thin smoke. 1t is this
servile sycopiiancy of the members
of Congress- that maintains the