Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-04-23
RoosEvELT's ERROR

We cannot conceive of anything more unfortunate for the cause which Presi- dent Roosevelt represents-the cause of freeing the American people from the evils of the partnership between profes- sional politicians and special interests than his bold declaration that he means to make Secretary Taft the Republican candidate for president, and that to ae complish his purpose he will virtually relieve the secretary of war from per forming his official duties and keep him hard at work in the canvass for dele gates during the next fifteen or sixteen months.
 Nobody will dispute both the right and the propriety of Secretary Taft s ambition to be president. This is an honorable ambition, open to every wor- thy citizen of the United States. No one will deny him the privilege of pre-. senting his claims for his party's nom nation This field also is free to all Republicans of parts and distinction, But it is an entirely different matter for president of the United States to decline to stand for another term him self, but to declare frankly, in effect, .l. l. t. !. This is the province neither of Presi- dent Roosevelt nor of any other person exercising great authority and power. It is the function and the duty of the voting members of the Republican par ty to pick their candidate, as it is the function and the duty of all the Amer ican people to select the successor of Mir. Roosevelt to be president of the United States.
 The voters of this country have ex- pected President Roosevelt, they have as good as asked him, to continue to help them to resist the efforts of the special interests to name our represent. atives and senators and to control our government; but they have not asked him, they ask no man, to exercise for them the function which is theirs-that of choosing their chief executive as well as their representatives in con. gress.
 It is no more abhorrent to the eternal ethical question and to the vital politi- cal principle involved to have Presi dent Roosevelt, exercising his power of office, fill the chair of the chief magis- trate of the nation after him, than to have the Standard Oil company, the railway combine, and the industrial =. trusts do the same thing, though un- doubtedly he would put a better man in the White House than they and would people congress with more useful public officials. But there is nothing which could more weaken our national character and hamstring our capacity for government than to have any man, whether representing political au. thority or financial power or the mere instruments of corruption, decree, as Q Diaz does for Mexico, who must follow in the chair of president
 President Roosevelt must abandon his resolve to name his successor if he desires our political institutions and our system of government by the people to survive. He must leave this work of choosing candidate to the members of the Republican party throughout the United States. It must always be left there, as the selection of the chief mag istrate must be left to the electors at large, unless we are to concede that our theories of independent government are an utter failure and that we are to begin an era of a sort of heredity personal sovereignty, wherein Roose- welt decrees Taft as his residuary leg atee, and Taft somebody else as his res iduary legatee, and thus with the next and so on down through history.
 Now, the American people, whatever they are tO become in the future. are not ready to abdieate governing by the people. It is against this very thing they have fought in supporting Mir. Roosevelt against the autocratic and despotic Rockefellers, Harrimans and Ryans, who would pick our rulers and decree their length of service. MT. Roosevelt has q different motive for seeking to perform this function that belongs only to the people, but its eff feet must be precisely the same-to devitalize our political principles and to debase our national ideals.
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