The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1907-11-29

which he has indeed helped to make
known, but of which he has not been
: In any degree the cause. AS he him
self has admirably expressed It: If
he lights a torch he is not responsible
for what the light shows.
Clinton b. Evans, editor OF the
Economist, Chicago, says the presi-
dent is no man of business and is a
bad misfit. In part he declares:
| President Roosevelt is menace to
the business of the country because of
the fear of what he will say next.
Nothing that he has actually done Tex.
cept as saying is doing) has hurt the
country, but a constant outpouring of
threats from the ruler of any nation
must necessarily cause disturbance in
the best times 1t is more than proper
for a president of the United States
to avow principles of honor and to de-
clare that dishonesty shall be pun
ished; but a constant iteration of such
: avowals is not only unnecessary but
suggestive of purposes that are not
made known.
Mr.. Roosevelt's course probably can
not be attributed to political motives,
but he is doing precisely the same
/ thing that the noisy sandlots orator
, does when he attacks anybody that has
accomplished anything in a business
way Mr. Roosevelt has his eyes di-
rected to only one element in business
affairs, and is apparently unable to see
anything else. He ferociously de-
mands that dishonesty shall be elm
mated from business. So far, so good;
r but If his methods were fully operative
> he would kill the patient while expell-
ing the poison. In the ordinary sense
of the term he cannot be called a mar
row man, but in this one respect he is
: pitifully narrow. In the management
of any great affair the diplomatic quail
, ity is as essential as the purpose to
do the right thing; otherwise the pur-
pose fails of accomplishment. The
| punishment of a few thieves need not
A be accompanied by the ruin of mil
, lion people and the destruction of the
whole economic fabric.
Mr.. Roosevelt is a man of strong
: convictions and great tenacity of pur-
pose He lacks the breadth of a Lin
: coin and the amenability to reason of
a Mckinley. He has to a considerable
extent justified the fears of many that
3 his administration would be character
t lied by a series of blunders such as
any headstrong man might commit.
= Yes, he is a menace to the business of
the country. If he is better than the
rest of us maybe he is too good for his
/ time, or perhaps one might say too
. exacting. But his zeal is a zeal too
little tempered with wisdom.
e. ID. Hubert, vice president of the
Merchants Loan and Truct company,
Chicago, thinks Roosevelt has strain
ed public confidence to the breaking
point. In part he says:
For some time past the president of
the United States has been hunting
} for evildoers in high places in way
: never before attempted. by chief mag
p, istrate anywhere. 1t would seem al
most as though the principle has been
: that it is better for any number of in
nocent people to suffer than for one
guilty man to escape When complaint
was made that this action and the
=. threats accompanying it were doing
harm to legitimate business, it was
: really no answer to say that corpora
r lions that were obeyng the law had
nothing to fear. That may be true so
:, far as the responsible heads of these
l corporations are concerned, but the
8 widely-scattered small stockholders
8 have no means of knowing whether
, the responsible heads are obeying the
laws or not, and here it was that to
: a great extent the harm began.
: For some years past the well-to-do
middle class has been investing heav-
e lily in corporate securities. The
amount of money thus invested in the
. past four years is probably as great as
s the total amount of savings deposits
v in the country. Naturally these peo-
l. pie became timid about their invest
h ments and tried to get their money
back by selling their securities. 1t
was about the same thing as a run on
I savings-bank, and the result has been
k the heaviest drop in the stock market
8 during the past year that has ever
- been recorded.
T. A. Mcintyre says that the presi-
. dent is no business man and that his
continued denouncing of "malefactors
y of great wealth" strained things to
the breaking point. He says that peo-
). pie accepted his reforms down to the
y dictation as to the propagation of the
race, but as one after another of the
: various big corporations was assailed
:. publicly by a battery of government
prosecutors, confidence weakened.
Henry Clews ends the series in a de-
=, Tense of the president and his policies.
!. He says that the president has been
constructive force and a cleanser.
= The gist of his statement is con-
. tanned in this paragraph:
G | can well remember the calumny
and the abuse which were heaped upon
the devoted head of Abraham Lincoln,
This denunciation did not for one mo-
ment cause him to desist in the great
work that he had undertaken. Today
e those who traduced him honor his
- memory History will reDeat itself