The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-11-27
WHITE HOUSE GAMBLING.

IAldL NdS al Gully Ing spectacle. the
spectacle of the senators from South
Dakota gambling at the White House
for patronage, as described in the As
ISOLATED Press dispatch from Wash
ington published in The Herald of yes
terday. And the gambling was en-
gagged in at the suggestion of no less a
purist than the president himself, the
great and good Roosevelt. who goes
about the land delivering sermons
against every conceivable form of sin.
The president set the example to the
senators. He opened the game by flip
ping q coin to decide which of the
statesmen should appoint a bank ex-
aminer.
1t seems particularly appropriate
that the name of one of the senators
who participated in this game of
chance was Gamble. What could have
been more fitting? Gamble gambIed
freely and gamely, and the president of
the United States acted as banker.
When the statesmen were through
they had just about divided the offices
between them. 1t was, so to speak, a
draw, and we presume the president so
ruled. Isn't there food for thought in
this spectacle?
Here were two members of the high
est legislative body in the land; here
was the nations chief executive. All
three we're engaging in gambling, pure
and simple. No other choice of terms
is possible. They were engaged in a
contest by which articles of value were
won and lost, for certainly a federal
Office is a thing of value. If we are
wrong in this conclusion some hun
dreds Of thousands of perennial appli-
cants for public office are wrong also.
though we are not particularly proud
of our company.
Another thing that is worth consid-
ering is the fact that the merits of the
men who are to fill the offices gambled
for were not taken into consideration
at all. Mr.. Roosevelt has long posed
as a champion of the merit system in
public appointments. He was once a
uiGHlJEl uL litC NlNiA SCI ltt GOlllilllS-
sion. Now he seems TO have changed
his attitude. The only thing that con-
Germs him now is as TO whether or not
the senator through whom the appoint
ments are to be made is satisfied with
the places allotted to him
Take the case of the bank examiner
that started the White House lottery
Gamble wanted to fill the place with
his man. His colleague, Kittredge,
wanted it for man Of his own choice.
1t is hardly probable that both men
were equal in merit, that there was no
between their qualifications.
Yet this is a question that was not
taken into consideration at all. Mr..
Roosevelt thought only of solving the
problem to the satisfaction of the SEN
ators, rather than for the good of the
public.
Finally, will the little game at the
White House injure Mr.. Roosevelt in
the esteem of the good people who
have been supporting him in season
and out of season? Poor Fairbanks
was put out of the running mereIy be
cause he served one little cocktail at a
breakfast at which Roosevelt was a
guest. Roosevelt drank his cocktail.
but the chances are that Fairbanks
didn't take even one tiny sip. Roose-
welt also drinks wine publicly. Also
he permits and encourages wrestling
matches and gambling in the White
House. And still the goo COOS" con-
tinue tc shout for him. Does he bear
a charmed political life?