Middletown transcript., 1907-03-16
WASHINGTON LETTER

Now that Congress is out of the way
speculation has begun to turn onthe next
Presidential election. 1t is almost Ger.
tainty that President Roosevelt will name
the next Republican candidate without
appearing to do so. Intimate friends of
the President say that his first choice for
the position would be Secretary OF State
Root, but unless something unexpected
happens, he will not be candidate for
the nomination any more than will the
President himself Mr.. Root has an
nounced his Discrimination for the Prssi-
dentia chair in very positive terms, and
in the dislike of Washington official life
he more than has the support of Mrs.
Root, who unlike many women in the
cabinet circle has no social ambitions that
she can see way of gratifying at the
Capital. It is said that next to Secretary
Root, the Presidents choice personally
would be for Secretary Taft. He has as
good as endorsed the Taft boom, and the
fact that the Secretary has refused the
Supreme Judgeship, which he might have
had at any time in the past year, indicates
that he thinks there may be things doing
in 1908. There is one thing certain, and
that is that the President will come nearer
nominating his successor than any other
President who has ever held Office.
Further he does not care SO much about
the man personally as he does about hav--
ing someone in Office who will follow the
line of policy that he has mapped out. 1t
may be that there will be 10 apparent
pressure from the President when the
time of nomination comes around, but it
is accepted by the shrewdest politicians
in the party that it would be ilnpolitic, if
not impossible, to nominate a man to
whom the President was actively op-
posed.
-
James R. Garfield, one of the Presi-
dents warm personal friends, and one of
the ''young men" of the administration,
has taken hold of the Interior Depart
ment in succession to Fec etary Ethan
Allan Hitchcock. "Jimmy is a member
of the famous lawn tennis board that is
supposed to settle the affairs OF the nation
on the clay court back of the White
House on summer afternoon. He has
announced that he will carry out the
policy Of Secretary Hitchcock in giving
the Land Office good house cleaning
and with hundreds of land fraud cases to
dispose of all over the country, he will
have an excellent chance to "make good"
But he has started in his cabinet career
by antagonizing most of the Washington
correspondents, and unless his WAYS
change, he is not likelv to g"t much |
credit for anything he does. This is un-
fortunate in way, for Secretary Garfield |
is nice young man. Though possibly a |
little overwhelmed by his sudden advance
in public life., But he has inaugurated |
the same system in the Interior Depart
lDCiN LLInb IIC lIdA "IlCll IlC DC
sioner of Corporations, of denying him
self to all newspaper callers and most call
ers of other sorts, and the result is that all |
of the Washington correspondents from
the heads of the big bureaus to the press
associations have begun to speak lightly
of him wherever it is necessary to men,
ton bis name. He may thaw ont in time.
Secretary Root was much older man
when he went into the War Department,
but more disIiked man following the
easy going Secretary AIger, has seldom
been found in Washington public life. !
However, in the course Ul a year lie g"t
his hearings, learned whom to trust and
whom to distrust among the host OF cor
who saw him daily and left
the War Department one of the most gen.
timely regretted secretaries from a news
paper viewpoint that has ever held cab
met Office. Since he has been back in
the State Department, he is little harder
TO see and he has as buffer between him
and the outside world typical New York
private secretary, who is paid for not
knowing things and is determined to earn
bis salary. But the Secretary OF State is
Just about the same when one does get at
him, and it is to be hoped for Mr.. Gar
fields sake more than for the sake of any,
one else that he will mellow a bit with
age or at least soon reach years of discre-
ion.
Nh