Middletown transcript., 1907-12-21
PRICE THREE CENTS
WASHINGTON LETTER

WASHINGTON, D. c.. December 18th, 1907
DREsIDENT Roosevelt, by bis un-
equivocal reiteration of bis Election
Night statement has cleared the political
atmosphere and IS sharply defined the
political issue which confronts the voters
of his party in the campaign which is to
end with the national election next June.
Not only has he repeated, with additional
emphasis, his assertion that he will not be
candidate and will not accept renomina-
ton, but he has also, in bis conversation
with friends, made it perfectly clear that
his chief purpose in so doing has been to
promote the candidacy OF William H.
Taft. He has further made it clear that
there must be elearcnt division in the
party, that those who are in favor OF the
continuation Of the Roosevelt policies will
ally themselves with the movement to
nominate Taft, while those who are OPP
posed to his policies will lave to select
one of the other would be candidates,
Hughes or Cortelyou or Cannon or.any
other whom they may choose. The
President does not attempt to dictate TO
his party. He leaves it to the party to
select which candidate it may choose, lie
does say, in effect, "You who are sincere in
your advocacy of my policies will line up
behind Secretary Taft. Those OF you who
are opposed to my policies will line up
behind some other candidate. If you
who are for my policies would succeed
you must stand solidly behind single
candidate and your logical candidate is
Mr.. Taft who has done SO much to help
me in my administration and who is
sincere and sympathetic advocate of those
policies. For if you split up and follow
several candidates it will be impossible
for US to overcome the intrigues of preda.
tory wealth, the corporations, the national
banks and others who are allied to defeat
the policies for which stand. Ofeourse,
if you are opposed to continuance Of my
policies, il you prefer to let powerful
yioiators of the law go UNI u1ished rather =:
than run the chance of depressing bust
ness, if you prefer gold to righteousness,
nominate any one of the others who have
been mentioned as possible candidates
and I will abide by the will of majority
of my party and will cast my ballot for
the party nominee. / will regret that
you have repudiated the things for which
l have stood, but I viii be obedient to
party discipline.
w
The President had intended to defer
the reiteration Of his Election Night state
ment until Secretary Taft returned but he
found that wolves disguised in sleeps
slothing were traficing in his name, were
trying to make political capital out of bis
popularity and to deceive his friends by
pretending to be for third term when in
reality they we're merely seeking to
to injure the chances of Mr.. Taft
whom the President regards as the
one man in the field who would sim
cerely and faithfully carry on the work
where he leaves off and who would be
uninfuenced bv the Wall Street end of
the Republican party. He determined
that his friends, at least, should not be de-
ceived by such tactics, that every would
be candidate must fight his own battle
squarely on the one issue of the campaign,
the continuance or the repndiation Of the
Roosevelt policies, that Cortelyou and
Hughes and Fairbanks and Cannon
should be as clearly recognized as oppon-
ents of the policies OF this administration
as is Senator Foraker who has OCCASION
ally frankly ayowed himselfas opposed to
those policies. With the situation
squarely presented to the people, with
further deception by men who shout
Roosevelt" while they whisper Trusts
impossible, the President stands prepared
to abide by the decision OF d majority Of
his party. His stand is now, "He that's
not for Taft is against me, and he that is
for me is for Taft" and the decision as to,
the candidate and the future policies OF
the party rests with the great rank and
file Of the Republican party.
80
1t is doubtful if ever before has. the
Democratic National Committee held as
spiritless and hopeless meeting as that
which occurred in Washington this week.
ST guess We'll have to nominate Bill
Bryan, althugh don't see the slightest
chance of eIecting him." was the declara-
tion of almost every member OF the COM
| mittee, made, of course, on condition that
he would not be quoted in the newspa-
pers. Speaking for publication, each one
asserted bis confidence in Bryan and in
his election. OF course there we're some
side shows in connection with the meet
ing. For instance, Ex-senator Kenney of
Delaware brought with him a resolution
declaring it to be the sense of the COM
mittee that all candidates to the conyen-
ton should be sent uninstructed, and
around the corridors OF the hotels and in
the rooms of members he talked elo-
queDtly in favor of nominating Judge
George Gray Of bis state. When the meet
ing met, Senator Kenney sat silent in his
seat afraid to offer even in executive ses-
sion, the resolution which he feared
would result in Mr.. Bryan's reading him
out of the party. So, to, there was a
movement in favor OF 1t. Gov, Chandler
of New York, but the men who were
back Of IL, headed by the Bryan Demo
cratic League Of New York, sat mute
during all the crucial period of the meet
ing and oilly dared to come out into the
open and advocate the administration of
their charnpion after the meeting was
over and most df the Bryan men had left
the city. The sending of the convention
to Denver vas, lof course, merely matter
.of money. Denver held up purse of
SI00, 600 before the lean nose Of the