Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1907-04-27
THINKS ROOSEVELT WONT
ACCEPT.

as laVOTlnR IL tllli u tcl III III IiSoiNSh'
Roosevelt would but stop long enough
to study the character OF the man
and the situation itself freed IRON
mere partisan coloring, they would
surely conclude that they are paying
him very poor compliment, what
ever their intentions. If he were an
ordinary politician, chronic place
hunter, demagogue, or time-ser-
yer, it would be a vastly different
thing; but being none OF these, nor
wearing at any time either OF their
shadings of color, and at the same
time man of such sturdiness of
character and directness OF speech as
amounts.:at times to abruptness--
straight as die, truthful as a dial
and as certain as the seasons-all
hands and the cook ought 10 know
that he means what he says, just that,
no more and no less. He takes the
right view of the matter, as indeed
he does of every public question, re-
garding the Presidency not as bau-
BILE to be awarded to scheming poll
ticians who happen to succeed in an
electoral scramble. but as a sacred
heirloom in our national inheritance,
the terms of possession of which are
outlined in the great charter and more
fully set forth i'll the example and pre-
cepts of the Father of his country.
He could have held the coveted posi-
ton for life, or going further could
have had it set aside altogether and
worn crown, but he would have
none of these; he would accept of
representative position at the hands
of his people, one that made him no
greater or small than the rest of
them, an agency so filled with respon-
sibilties that mere self-seeking found
no chance for exercise even if il ex-
listed and from which the chief honors
were those that spring also from the
private station-do}ng ones whole
duty honestly, ably, diligently and
courageously. And that there might
not be so much as a suggestion OF
kingly method, the period of service
should not extend beyond a second
term, whereby the peoples apprecia-
ton of the first might find full and
proper expression-and that was all.
How could any man thoroughly
imbued with the American IDEAS
Roosevelt unquestionably is--have
the temerity even if he had the dispo-
sition to as much as entertain the
idea of a departure from that hal
lowed example, let alone lend himself
to a scheme looking to carrying it
out? The President has abundant
reason to know, and thereby does
know, that the great mass of the peo-
pie are with him and have so much
confidence in his patriotic purpose
and general integrity That all he
needs to do to secure another four
years in the White House is to per-
nit them to take advantage of the
triflng techncality that his first term
was not full one; but he does not
deal in technicalities. His concep-
tons of duty and uprightness are OF
the robust type and go to the sub
stance of things; and when he said
in plain terms-repeating it subse-
quently that there might be no mis-
understanding = that he would not
again be a candidate for the chief
magistracy of the nation, he meant it.
Those who talk otherwise might as
well say he Isl falsifier or else so
infirm of purpose that he can be won
over by skillful manipulation, both of
which are foreign = very foreign
to his nature and practices.