Arizona republican., 1907-11-24
PHoENIx. ARIZ.. NOV. 24. 1907.
THE GOVERNOR WAS MISUNDER-
 STOOD.

STOOD.
 Governor Kibbcy has been at Globe and while there he was interviewed by the Silver Belt A considerable part of the printed interview is in quota tion marks, that is verbatim but there is one interesting paragraph In the oblique oration. The verbatim sec tion of 1t relates to statehood and IS a repetition of the statements made by the governor on his return from Vicksburg. In that part We know him to have been accurately quoted.
 We regret. however. that the report CT abandoned the verbatim accuracy of his work and fell into slipshop ir- responsibility in undertaking not to repeat what the governor said about a very important matter. but to interpret the governors meaning as follows:
 Asked whether he was a Roosevelt third termer, the governor declared emphatically that he was. He said IL would be Roosevelt or a man backed by the executive. or a democrat. who would be the next president. and he also expressed the belief that if Roose- welt were rendered the nomination for president by a unanimous vote he would accept it.
 That the governor is a warm ad- mirer Of the president even to the third termer degree We have not the slight est doubt. There is no impropriety in being so: there are thousands of en- inent, estimable and honest Roosevelt third terners in this country. MT Roosevelt has demonstrated many strong and admirable qualities and as for the third term. any objection that may be entertained against it is pure ly sentimental. The reporter, perhaps, caught the governors meaning up to this point. but when he wrote: He said 1t would be Roosevelt or man backed by the executive or a democrat who would be the next president" he made the governor utter a libel against the republican party. the entire coun- try and the governors own reputation for sound judgment
 The governor may believe that MT Roosevelt will be renominated, but We cannot conceive that Governor Kibbey would endorse the alternative of a candidate named by the president or that he could thus be led into a recog milton of the doctrine that any presi- dent however wise and virtuous should be permitted to name his successor. If the governor holds that general be- lief he has not a majority of Ameri- cans "ith him.
 There was never more popular chief executive than President Roose- welt and it is believed in many quar- ters that he could easily secure renom- iBation but there is daily a lessening belief that he will be able to dictate the nomination of a favorite. The waning enthusiasm for Secretary Taft, who is admittedly possessed of all presidential qualities is attributable to the revulsion of the American spirit against the assault directed against it when the president openly sought to force him upon the party as its nom inee. The Republican party wants no legatee to lead it and the country will have no representative other than the peoples in the presidential chair.
 It would be still further from a man of the sober judgment and staunch re- publicanism of Governor Kibbey to de- clare that the great party which has successfully directed the affairs of the nation for a half century has at last come to rest solely upon Rooseveltism; that Theodore Roosevelt alone can save il from dissolution; that with that prop withdrawn the country would lapse into a Bryanic chaos.
 If the party's existence is held by such a slender tenure. we think SO good a republican as the governor would advise voluntary political bankruptcy 6 settlement of the af- rairs of the party that it might start again from d sound beginning as it did fifty years ago when it was de- pendent upon no one man but upon undying principles. not mere policies.
 We are more than ever certain that the governor entertains no such pes SimiStic view of his marty hecause it does not reflect state of facts. It is certainly not based on the gover- nor's observations of the condition of his party in this territory where con- fidence in Repubicanism was never warmer and higher; not confidence in Rooseveltism. not in Hughesism. not in Teftism. not any one-manism but in the party, its principles and in