The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-30
THE WEEKLY JOURNAL. Issued Thursdays, one Dollar a Year.
THE SrRENUous LITE.

4lC AAAVl00 Ol ItOSAApAAS Ah@SSSNSAN must be as chagrined at the position In which he has been suddenly placed by the Rev. Dr. Long of Stamford as the friends of the latter gentleman must be angry at the seemingly unpardonable attack made on him by the President You have used the enormous influence of your official position to dlscredit me as man." writes pr. Long in an open letter, land injure my reputation. and incidentally to make poor man even poorer by destroying. if possible, the sale and influence of his work" This , is serious charge to bring against the President of the United States. who is avowedly the keeper of "the square deaI' and promoter of the gospel of fair play.
 The difference between these gentle men is fundamental but even so no cit- izen of the United States can take any satisfaction in discovering the Presi dent in an altercation which is to have possibly such far-reaching conse- Quences as are dreaded by one of them. Dr. Long is a naturalist of repute and has for many years been used by edu- cationalists to further instruct the chill dren in the public schools in the hab- it's and ways of wild animals. He is not a hunter as is President Roosevelt. He confines his interest to the study of the animals in their own llaunts. "In my book have given the result" says pr. Long, ''of long years of watching animals in the wilderness with no oth- CT object than to study their habits, and so far as man can to understand the mystery. of their dumb life" Later on in Dr. Long's impassioned appeal for Justice at the hands of a single man, made the more formidable because he is the President of the United States, he says to that distinguished official. { 'As President of the United States you have gone out of your way to publicly inj1re private citizen, who is attend- ing strictly to his own business, and a man whose ideals of truth and honor are quite as high as your own" The injury of which Dr. Long complains is that President Roosevelt charged him with false witness in his description of the habits of the wild animals. The doctor now offers proof of the truth of his statements.
 It has been well said of the President of the United States that one cannot inaugurate a controversy with him; that 1t would be unseemly to thus in- trude upon the dignity of the repre- sentative official of 8 great country. President Roosevelt has himself warn- ed the country that the representations of others with regard to his attitude in any given case must be taken as lies" unless counterslgned by him. Tn the case of Dr. Long we find that the assertions of which he complains were made by President Roosevelt, and that they are surely calculated to destroy his reputation as naturalist, especially among that large class which harm, and to limit the sale of his books to the few who know him per- sonally. You cannot at this stage, MT. Roosevelt" indignantly says Dr. Long, take refuge behind the presi- dential office and be silent, You have forfeited your right to that silence by breaking 1t; by coming out in public to attack a private citizen. If your talk of square deal is not all sham, if your frequent moral preaching is not hypocrisy, call upon you as Presi- dent, and as man, to come out and admit the error and injustice of your charge in the same open and public way in which you made It." One can not but feel the outraged nature of the afflicted naturalist and sympathize with him in his demand for the en- forcement of the square deal, To be hit in that way and by such q popu- lar lover of the hunt Is no laughing matter
 It Is by the consideration of this sorry controversy that we are forced to suspend Judgment. The injury is so vital, If necessary, so brutal, if un- Justified, that we can but turn i'm ploringly to President Roosevelt and ask him to hurry with that manly apology, which is clearly deserved, un- less he is in possession of the facts tc reinforce his original charge that Dr. Long is "a fakir." The Presidents other alterations have been of char acter where the men struck at could afford to preserve a dignified silence and let time right their grievance, but this one is painful in it's distressing ef. feet upon 8 quiet, studious gentleman whose inquiries into the nature anC habits of the animal Kingdom are o spiritual origin. We have noticed :