Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-05-09
AS TO THE THIRD TERM
A New York Paper Gives Rather Pro
 nounced Views on the Subject

"The historical argument against a
 third term is found in series of ex.
 tracts which show how the proposition
 was regarded by Washington, Jeffer.
 son and Mckinley, by Grant until he
 was urged into contest against his
 better judgment, and by Theodore
 Roosevelt, whose wise uterances made
 in the hour of his greatest triumph,
 should be regarded as conclusive con.
 corning his own intentions, says the Jamestown, N. Y., Post.
 It is perhaps too much to expect a
 consideration of historical precedents
 by a generation that has read into the
 American constitution provisions the
 fathers never placed there, and which is
 inclined to cast aside even the declara-
 tion of independence as an outworn gar
 ment. But the example set by Wash.
 ington and considered as binding pre-
 cedent by Jefferson and long line of successors is nevertheless worthy of dis
 cussion. The most surprising fact of
 the present loose talk about a third term is the ease with which its advo- eates affect to ignore the lessons of history and experience If there was danger in a third term century ago, there is no less danger now, when the powers of the presidential office have been magnifed beyond the dreams of our revolutionary ancestors. Wise pre- cedents ought not to be broken down to meet temporary conditions created by the assumed necessity flo rthe re, election of popular president, whose services to his country are worthy of grateful remembrance, but certainly cannot be placed above those of Wash ington, Jefferson and Grant. The ben efeent policies of most of our presi- dents have survived their administra. tions. Presidents come and go, but principles and policies endure
 '' Nor is the argument that a re-elec. tion of President Roosevelt would not give him real third term entitled to any weight, in view of the fact that he, as vice president, assumed the du- ties of the presidential office but six months after the beginning of Mir. Me kinley's second term. The people will regard the substance and not the form This claim is on .. par with the argument of Senator Conkling in the Utica convention of 1880, when he de clared that although the law of this state made ,sheriffs ineligible for re- election, he bad never. heard any objec- tion to again electing-a -a sheriff after he had been out of office a term. This | was invented to justify third term for General Grant under the | then existing.
 As a matter of fact, President Diaz of Mexico did retire from office for a term until he could secure the amend ment of the Mexican constitution and begin the autocratic rule which, under the authority of merely formal re-elec. tion, has now lasted twenty-three years. The United States is not Mexico, and Roosevelt is mot Diaz, but who shall 'ay that the. violation of salutary md unwritten law of our government 'NNiu hVs 'h thO uiotdhb | dangerous precedentf
 "The Republican party is committed beyond question to the wise policies Or which Theodore Roosevelt stands. No candidate who favors any backward tep could be nominated or elected. There is no lack of worthy men from whom to make selection. If the en- husiastic admirers of the president in- list on bringing the third term issue o the front, as some of them are doing n the fact of his own words, they must lot murmur or complain if the Repub- ican party and the American people. urning aside from their hero worship, ssert again the verdict of history and Ieclare that even Theodore Roosevelt 's areer shall not be crowned with an onor which Washington and Jefferson eclined and which was denied to the ,reatest of our military heroes-Ulys- es s. Grant,
 This is plain talk and to the point.