St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1907-04-17
WASHINGTON LETTER.
(From our Special Correspondent


predict what even the next twenty-fol
- hours will bring forth. Fortunately f
the peace of mind of Washington as we
as the country at large, Congress is nc
i'll session and we are spared the forens
"a efforts of those who would surely rus
IS to the attack or defense of the admins
90 tration if the floor of the Senate an
House were open to them, and til
81 benches and galleries crowded. wit
auditors. The views of Senator UI
:. country or Representative Backwoods
&c expressed in Congress are of some i'm
ct portance and areimmediately given Wild
o circulation. When given privately il
5 interviews, Congress being out of season
r they rarely get beyond circumscribed
field, generally local.
But almost the sole topic of converse
ton in Washington recently has been the
Presidents disclosures of the attempt to
repudiate him by securing the nomina-
ton of some one not in accord with his
policies, at the next Republican conven-
ton. With characteristic frankness the
President took the public into his conf
dence at the most favorable opportunity.
No sooner had the Hartman letter been
made public property than the President
handed out the correspondence which
tended to show that for some reason
Mr.. Hartman desired to eliminate Sen
ator Depew from the Senatorial contest.
Some ascribe Mr.. Harriman's interest to
desire to succeed Mr. Depew in the
Senate, and the President is said to have
suspected such to be the predominating
thought with the railroad magnate. |
However that may be, the President |
followed this sledge-nammer blow with |
long talk with newspaper men. He
called a number to the White House and |
discussed with the greatest freedom the
combination which was organized to
defeat him for the Presidential nomina |
ton in 1904. At that time the Inter |
ests " would have rallied around the late
Senator Hanna. His death left them |
without an available candidate and the !
renegades returned to the reservation
and promised to "be good" This made
people sit up and take notice and the
next day the President went at it again.
This time he gave out the information
that cabal was now being formed to
trot out favorite sons, the delegations to
be swung in line at the proper time for
an anti-Roosevelt candidate.
The President has thus squarely out
lined the issue between himself and his
policies on one side, and trusts and cor
porate interests on the other. 81 think
will have the people with me-" he said,
and certainly he has grounds for the
belief. No man in the history of the
country ever had the people so solidly at
his back as has been proven by the
widespread and almost universal endorse
ment OF his policies. The danger lies in
his announced determination to retire
from the field and leave his mantle to his
successor, whom he frankly desires to
select. No one but Secretary Taft ap-
pears to fill the bill and not all the
specification fit the genial Secretary of
War. Mr. Taft is great man; of his
capacity for work, of his ability. his
fairness, astuteness, incorruptibility and
his general fitness for the highest office,
no one can speak too highly But Mr..
Taft lacks one quality predominant in
MI Roosevelt, namely, aggressiveness
His bent of mind is not in that direction
and yet it is that quality in Roosevelt
which appeals most strongly to the
American people, They realize that with
the handicaps he has had it has been a
tremendous task to accomplish what he
has and that the results have been due
almost entirely to his restless, relentless
activities. He has infused the officials of
his administration from top to bottom
with resistless desire to prosecute
offenders against the existing laws, and
to design other laws and write them in
the statute books to further restrain the
of aggregated and preda- t
tory wealth. Now, with his task only |
alrly well begun, he sincerely wishes to i
relinquish the reins to a newcomer and I
retire to well earned rest. All indlca-
tons point, however, to such an insist G
mt demand on the part of the people S
hat Mr.. Roosevelt shall continue at the I
1ead OF affairs, that the shrewdest I
observers believe he will be forced to take
he nomination. No man can resist the 7
all which they believe will be made on
aim in 1908. A nomination rendered as
a sort OF compliment, or one in which
there was a contest, might be declined.
but not, they say, one spontaneously
offered by devoted constituency. This
sentiment is becoming more and more
pronounced. Senator Burkett, of
Nebraska, says the sentiment in his state
is pronouncedly Rooseveltian, Senator
Gamble, of South Dakota, SAYS his state
will hear of no one else. Ex-senator
Marion g. Butler, of North Carolina.
once the great leader of the Populist
movement, now a Roosevelt man. de.
clares that in his state no one but Roose.
welt will do. Hundreds of Others are
talking the same way and with great
popular feeling to back them.
In these declarations there is no effort {
TO dlScredit Mr.. Roosevelt's statement
that ne does not wish the nomination
and will not accept it. This is the first
time the people have differed with him
on any subject but here they stand
apart. He is determined not to he a S
candidate They are slowly making up
tneir minds that he must" and the will
ol u rhe people, as Mr.. Roosevelt knows,