The daily sentinel., 1907-04-15
ROOSEVELT AND ,pEMocEAcY

In a speech at banquet in Chat-
tanooga. John. Temple Graves of Atr
lanta. urged Mr.. Bryan. to name
Roosevelt as Democratic candidate
for president in the next national
convention. Whether Mf.~Graves was
Joking, or whether he really meant
II. does not appear in the reports, but
it is hardly possible TO conceive that
the suggestion was made seriously
So far as Mr.. Roosevelt's policies
in some directions go, he is quite as
Democratic as Mr.. Bryan himself;
indeed, on some questions the presi-
dent ont Bryan's Bryan, but between
genuine Democracy and Roosevelt
Republicanism there Is gulf as wide
as the chasm between Hamilton's be-
lief in government by aristocracy and
Jefferson's. conviction that demo-
cracy meant government by the peo-
pie and all the people.
In his meat inspection bill the
prosecution of the trusts and his de-
stole bodily the Democratic platform,
and no one has been quicker to con-
cede the value of his work than Mr..
Bryan, who was defeated largely be-
cause he advocated prosecution of the
criminal trusts, the abolition of
freight, rebates and the, suppression
of special privileges to monoplies.
Mr.. Bryan's position on these ques-
tons and his continued public indict-
ment of the men responsible for the
evils. made it possible for Roosevelt
to secure the legislation which has
given him such a strong following
among the people. The result achiev-
ed have been attained in spite of the
Republican party, whose support has
come from the trusts and monoplies.
and whose leaders today would glad
ly relegate Roosevelt and his policies
to the background.
But right there the Democracy of
Mr.. Roosevelt ends. His whole adj
ministration has beenea defiance of
Democratic faith in the ability of the
people to govern for themselves. He
has no regard for the independence
of the legislative and judicial branch
es of government, 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. Mckinley used to
make the people believe Bryan was
ready to subvert the law.
In the California school case.
Roosevelt again defled all constitu-
.tional precedent and distinctly per-
yerted his executive power in dlsre-
gard of the Democratic doctrine that
well-defined state rights are just as
sacred and just as binding upon n
president as any national right or
obligation. Coercion of congress. in
reference with state affairs, open
and brutal criticism of the federal
courts, constant departure from
tive powers, these are some of the
things that make the Graves proposal
seem SO ridiculous as to suggest
irony. He might as well have sug-
gested Jim Jeffries as moderator for
the next Presbyterian general assemb-
ly. or nominated Senator THlman as
Booker Washington,s successor in the
Tuskegee school; either would be less
incongruous than Roosevelt as the
nominee of party which stands for
constitutional separation of. the three
departments of government execu-
tive. legislative and judicial. And
the incongruity of the suggestion is
the more marked because 1t. comes
from a southern editor who. might be
supposed to know something of the
history of his party as well as the
history of the president.--EdItoria
in Salt Lake Herald.
A. GRIar~ r,pnDcH ADJ n.xx.rr,r