The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-04-13
ROOSEVELT AND DEMOCRACY,

ROOSEVELT AND DEMOCRACY.
In a speech at a banquet in Chat
tanooga, John Temple Graves of At
lanta urged Mr. Bryan to name Roose-
welt as Democratic candidate for presi-
dent in the next national convention.
Whether Mr. Graves was joking, or
whether he really meant it does not ap-
pear in the reports, but it is hardly pos
sible to conceive that the suggestion
was made seriously.
So far as Mr.. Roosevelts policies in
some directions go, he is quite as Dem
ocratic as Mr. Bryan himself; indeed.
on some questions the president out
Bryan's Bryan, but between genuine
Democracy and Roosevelt Republican
ism there is a gulf as wide as the chasm
between HamiltOn's belief in govern
ment by aristocracy and Jefferson's
conviction that a democracy meant
government by the people and all the
people
his meat inspection bill, the pros
ecution- of the trusts and his demand
for rate legislation, Roosevelt stole
bodily the Democratic platform, and
no enc mas been quicker to concede the
value Of his work than Mr. Bryan. who
was defeated largely because he advo-
Gated prosecution of the criminal trusts,
.ne abolition of freight rebates and the
suppression of special privileges to
moHopolies
Mr.. Bryan's position on these ques-
tons and mis- continued public indict-
ment of the men responsible for the
evils. made 1t possible for Roosevelt to
secure the legislation which has given
him such strong following among the
people The results achieved have been
attained in spite of the Republican
party. whose support has come from
the trusts and monopolies, ard whose
leaders today would gladly relegate
Roosevelt and his policies to the back
ground.
But right there the Democracy of Mr..
Roosevelt ends. His whole administra-
tion has been a defiance of Democratic
faith in the ability of the people to
govern for themselves. He has no re-
gard for the independence of the legis-
iative and judicial branches of govern
ment. and is continually encroaching
upon their rights. He has criticised the
federal judiciary in terms much more
offensive than the plank of the Bryan
platform of 1896 which Hanna and Nc
Kinley used TO make the people believe
Bryan was ready to subVert the law.
In the California school case, Roose-
welt again defied all constitutional pre-
cedent and distinctly perverted his ex-
ecutive power in disregard of the Dem
ocratic doctrine that well-defined state
rights are just as sacred and Just as
binding upon president as any nation
al right or obligation. Coercion of con-
gress. interference with state affairs.
open and brutal criticism of the federal
courts, a constant departure from we'll
defined limitations upon executive pow
ers. these are some of the things that
make the Graves proposal seem so
ridiculous as to suggest irony. He
might as we'll have suggested Jim JEFF
fries as moderator for the next Presby.
terrain general assembly, or. nominated
Senator Tillman as Booker Washing
toms successor in the Tuskegee school;
either would be less homogeneous than
Roosevelt as the nominee of a party
which stands for constitutional separa-
ton OF the three departments of gov
eminent. executive legislative and ju-
Cicial And the incOngruity of the sug-
gestion is the more marked because il
comes from southern editor who
might be supposed to know something
of the history of his party as well as
he history of the president.