The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-05-08
THE DIFFERENCE.

| THE DIFFERING E-
Those people who claim to regard
the term, undesirable citizens" as
badge of honor since President
Roosevelt emphasized it last week,
certainly have very peculiar idea of
honor.-State Journal.
Yes, and those papers that have
reached a point with Roosevelt where
they think, 1.-THE king can do no
| wrong" have very peculiar sense of
propriety. Just because the president
\ has departed from rules that ought to
govern a man occupying the position
he does and placed the stamp of guilt
upon men whose lives have been just
as clean as his own or the editor OF
| the State Journal either and who are
| presumably just as innocent of crime
as either of them the Journal must
| outrage its usual high standard of fair
play and in a truculenr spirit of SER
Witty, join in with the president in
creating a sentence of guilty in the
public mind against men who are OBJ
viously the victims of the most dia-
bolical conspiracy eyer concocted
against the lives of leading citizens.
The more we read of such little in
situations like this in the Journal the
more one can appreciate the impro-
priety of the presidents uncalled for
and unjust attacks on these men, who
are on trial for their lives. bounded as
they are by men who are known to be
criminals and thugs. Were this the
presidents first public condemnation
of these unfortunate men IL would not
look so bad, but 1t is not. With all
his redeeming features Mr.. Roosevelt
takes the bit in his teeth too often
and rides rough shod over everybody,
right or wrong.-Scott County Chron-
icle.
The failure to differentiate between
truth and error in this Moyer-Hay-
wood controversy is causing few
otherwise level-headed persons to
make some exceedingly rash state
ments 1t has caused this Scott coun-
ty editor to be guilty of the very
charge which he makes against Presi-
dent Roosevelt, but of which the presi-
dent is innocent-that Of pre-judging
Meyer and Haywood regarding the
crime for which they are now being
tried. The Scott county editor ac-
quits them off-hand and lauds them
as ''the victims OF the most diabolical
conspiracy ever concocted against the
lives of leading citizens" The presi-
dent. on the other hand. has made it
clear that they are entitled to every
protection and presumption of the
law regarding the charge of murder
ing Governor Stuenenberg, and that
their guilt or innocence of this charge
remains to be proven in court instead
of being passed on off-hand before the
evidence is in. OF his "Reminiscences
he has satisfied even the committee
sent by a New York labor organiza-
ton to demand to know why he
characterized these men as undesira-
BILE citizens.
President Roosevelt believes all
those who either break the law or
foment trouble that leads to law
breaking are not desirable citizens.
He denounced men of the Hartman
stamp along with those like Meyer
and Haywood who stir up class
hatred and incite a spirit of lawless-
ness. He would denounce the law
breaking mine owners just as quickly
as he would the Iaw-breakers among
the Western Federation of Miners.
Where the Scott county editor fails
to differentiate is between the presi-
dents disapproval of the general at
titude of men like Meyer and Hay
wood and the guilt or innocence of |
these men of the specific crime for
which they are now on trial. If Mr.. |
Hartman were charged with pur- |
posely wrecking one of his trains, |
President Roosevelt's statement that |
he is an undesirable citizen would |
hardly be construed by the Scott |
county editor as pre-judging him on |
that specific charge.
AS to the State Journals attitude |
towards President Roosevelt, it pro-
poses to uphold him and his policies
whenever it believes he is right-and |
it is glad to say that he is nearly al
ways right. This paper refused to en-
dorse his attitude regarding a number
of matters where it would not |
have done just as Roosevelt did;
but in his chief public policies
1t believes he is nearly always
right, and it will not join the
Debses and the Hearsts and Meyer
Haywood propaganda in helping the
and the Rockefellers to
bring the president and his policies
into disrepute. Nothing pleases the
law-breaking trusts more than to see
the extremists on the other side de-
nounce the president. In so doing
people like the Scott county editor are
playing into the hands of the Harri-
man-Standard Oil crowd in their fight
on Roosevelt.