The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1907-05-02
No Indispensables.
Welfare and Safety of the Country
Does Not Depend on Either
Roosevelt or Bryan Both
Might Die and the Work of Ref
ormation Would Still Go On.
Norfolk Virginian-Pi

Norfolk Virginian-Pilot.
So far as emancipation of the coun-
try from the domination OF corpora
tions is concerned the Urginian-
Pilot does not pin its hope either to
Mr.. Roosevelt or to Mr. Bryan. They
might both die and the work of refOr-
nation would still go on by prOpul-
sion OF "a determined pubIi.. senti-
ment, thoroughly alive 10 .hr needs
OF the situation and resOlute to have
them met. Indeed is is very possible
that more effective legislation and
more efficient execution OF the laws
might be had under leadership OF
some person less cOcksure of his own
infallibility and less welded to pride
of opinion than either Of themt The
Similarity between the two is striking
i'll some respects, and so far as their
avOwed policies toward the Trusts
and Railroads go the difference be-
tween them is about as pronounced
as that between tweedIedum and
tweedledee. Bryan is at pains to let
it be known that heapproves all that
Roosevelt has tried or proposes to
do i'll this respect, and Roosevelt is
perfectly ready to appropriate any
further suggestion from Bryan which
seems likely to win public favor. The
President said long ago that contin-
ued defiance of right by the offending
railway and industrial corporations
would lead to the taking over of these
interests by what he calls the Nation;
Mr.. Bryan says that, should the
measures of regulation set on foot by
the administration fail to produce
the desired results, the ultimate out
come must be government owner
ship.
Nobody is discussing who shall be
President from this time to the 4th
of March, 1909. The question is,
who shall come after the present in
cumbent of the office? Neither is there
any appreciable room for doubt that
the succession, whichever party shall
carry the country, will fall upon
any person not pledged to an anti
corporation program at least as
drastic as that which Mr.. Roosevelt
inaugurated and proposes. The in
situation, therefore, that criticism of
his views and conduct in relation to
other public matters is calculated to
weaken, if not to call halt to the
movement for regulation of the pub
lie service and other corporations, is
far fetched to Il degree
There are many other things at
stake besides this particular issue,
and as to some OF them Mr.. ROOse-
velt occupies an attitude which is
neither more nor less than menace
to constitutional government. To
look with distaste and apprehension
ON some OF Mr.. Bryan's policies is a
fault or a misfortune to which we
must plead guilty. But to view with
mixed hatred and alarm the political
principles in obedience to which Mr..
Roosevelt would erect an irresponsi-
BILE central despotism upon the ruins
OF chartered and limited Federal
agency, we look upon as the highest
duty OF the hour to every citizen in
telligent enough to know the founda-
tions on which our free institutions
rest and to realize that when the
States have been once destroyed the
liberties of the people will have lost
their main safeguard. But a few days
ago Secretary Root. as the mouth
piece of the President gave deliberate
expression to doctrine which i'm
putes to the Executive and the Sen
ate OF the United States the power to
muzzle the House of Representatives,
to nullify the guarantees given by
the eConstitution to the several States,
to obliterate every vestige of home
rule by the people of the component
parts of the Union. The blow is
aimed at the very foundations of
representative government; and, un-
less parried, the consequence would
be that the police authority of every
State would be exercised by the
treaty-maklng power, and our do
mestic affairs would be absolutely
controlled by the terms of conven-
tlons enterted into between the Pres
ldent and Senate and various foreign
countries, instead of by laws made
by the legislatures of the States or
even by Congress. To admit such a
contention would be to put the So
clal system of the South at the mercy
OF sectional administrations: and to