The daily sentinel., 1907-05-15
Short Range
View of Mr.
Roosevelt
Distance Lends EnChantment to the Big
Stick Wielder's Popularity--His
Relatives With the Rich
A Hitherto Unpublished Chapter in the
Hartman Railway Muddle

WASHINGTON. d. O., May
10-(Special to The Sentinel)
1t positively is astounding to
people here in Washington who
know President Roosevelt, at
short range, to read about his
popularity in the country ut
large, and the further away the
more popular he seems to be.
There must be something in that
saying that "distance lends en-
chantment to the view" The
closer you get to the man the
less you will like him, for
l do not know of one lovablc
trait he possesses, although he
catches many men by his inn
pulsivc ways of doing things.
He impulsivcly tells one man
that he will do what is wanted
of him, but the minute the mans
back is turned and the man who
does not want that thing done
gets his ear, he just impulsively
goes back on what he said TO the
other man, and tells the second
man that 1t shall be aS he wish
cs. Thus he is all things to all
men and nothing very long.
NhAAAh
He has made many grand stand
plays about doing things that the
people wanted, but name one thing
he has done or advocated that has
been of any practical benefit to the
people, and 1 will name you num-
Der that he has advocated and done
that have been or would have been
Il detriment TO the interest of the
people What good. so far. has the
railroad rate bill been to the con-
sumers and shippers of the country?
Old Laws Enforced.
Every suit that has been brought
against the combination or the rail-
roads, has been brought through the
Elltins law or the Sherman antitrust
law, two laws that were on the stat
ute books before the enactment of the
railroad rate law and simply never
had been enforced.
Not After the Rich.
The people of this country have got
the idea into their heads that Mr..
Roosevelt is after the rich, the pre-
datory rich, and that he is giving
them n taste of the big stick. Well,
he is not hurting them SO bad as he
is the people who are dependent on
the growth of the railroads and their
expansion and their ability to haul
the crops to market. Mr.. Roosevelt
did not hesitate to take the money
of the predatory rich, during the last
presidential campaign, when he was
cheek and Joyl with the whole bunch
of them and hobnobbing with them
as to the best way to win the election.
After the election, however, he turns
on them and, in order to make n
grandstand play. he asserts that he
Is going to do things to them which
scares capital into hiding and the
railroads cannot borrow any money
to make extensions or build new lines
that are needed to haul the commerce
of the country.
Veneer VIII Come Off.
Regulation and control of railroads
is ali right. II is democratic policy
and democratic doctrine by a repub-
Iican administration to make 1t pop
ular and its popularity today is based
on policies. doctrines and ideas stolen
from the democratic platform. The
democratic platform. however, never
advocated confiscation of property. or
tried to WELD the big stick to scare
capitaI off the face of the earth. That
is what Roosevelt has done in order
to create little cheap popularity.
You can take my word for 1t, the
veneer will be washed off this poll
tical tin deity before his term expires
and the people will know him as do
the correspondents In washington
and the members Of Congress. lie
has not n dozen friends in Congress.
on either side of the political fence,
but they are afraid to say their soul
is their own, on account OF the pat
ronage stick he wields. They. also,
are playing the political game, and
thew dare not express their honest
opinions. If they had the courage
TO do so. they would be astounded to
know that four-fifths of the men to
whom they express them would agree
with them. and thus the so-called
popularity OF the President would
vanish like thin smoke. 1t is this
seryile sycophancy of the members
of Congress but maintains the pop
ularity of the President out In the
country added to the servility of the
daily press of the country in giving
circulation to all the ideas and
schemes hatched in the White House,
Whenever he wants to head off some
one or some thing that interferes with
his plans: whenever he wants to get
to the people with a grandstand play
he sends down for bunch of news
paper correspondents for the papers
that slobber on him and has them up
TO the White House Then he pats
them familiarly on the back and tells
them in a heart TO heart talk what
he wants to get before the people. al
ways making them write the matter
In the third person and never quote
him.
To Deny Anything.
He then is in a position to deny
that may come out that is
not pleasing to him, which he docs
with a flourish OF trumpets and
thereby adds new members to his
Ananias Club. He can not and does
not fool a lot of the older cores
nondents here. They have looked in
his trunk and they know him. But
n is very flattering to the young
TO have the President
of the United States pat them on the
back and call them "old boy" and
tell them what they believe to be the
innermost secrets Of the White
House. They all go away and print
the same story, thus heading off the
story as It should have been told in
- NmHH