Middletown transcript., 1907-08-31
WASHINGTON LETTER

Wh0AAMNUAViN ALNkEA
WASHINGTON, D. c., Angus oath, 1907.
THE news that the Secretary of State,
Elihu Root, lie at William Muldoon's
Sanitarium, near New York, has given
rise t. number OF wholly unfounded re-
ports to the effect that Mr.. Root has suf-
fered a nervous breakdown, has quarreled
with the President, contemplates resign
ing from the cabinet, etc., all of which
your correspondent is in position en-
phatically to deny. Mr.. Root has had no
quarrel with the President, and be has no
thought OF resigning from the cabinet.
On the contrary, he expects to start next
month for Mexico where he will be the
guest OF President Diaz for a. short time.
Neither is Mr.. Root nervous wreck, al
though it is fact that he is. worn out
with the heavy responsibilities Of his high
position, and the great amount of detail
work which devolves upon him because
be has not been given competent assis-
tants.
~
There is another reason, however, why
Mr.. Root deemed it wise to spend the
few remaining weeks OF his vacation at
Muldoon's, and that is that despite the
fact that he went to his summer home at
Clinton, N. Y, with the hope of securing
complete rest, hardly day has passed on
which one or more visitors has not ar
rived from New York. As Mr.. Roots
place is quite distant from the station, it
was necessary to keep most of these over
night, and the Secretary has sat far into
the night evening after ereaiass, talking talking
politics, finances, ETC., with his New York
friends, many of whom we're his clients
when he practiced his profession in New
York, and whom he was bound to treat
with the utmost courtesy. Finding his
vacation speeding to its close without his
having enjoyed the complete rest which
he SO sorely needed, he determined to re-
tire to Muldoon's and now no friend can
get at him without first encountering
Muldoon, and even now the ex-prize
fighter would not be a pleasant gentle
man TO tackle. Mr.. Root spends much time
in the saddle, practically all his waking
hours in the open air, and is thus able to
sleep from ten to twelve hours out of the
twenty-four. He writes his friends in
Washington that he expects to return to
Washington rested and rejuvenated and
ready for the hard winters work that is
ahead OF him.
~
Secretary Taft's western trip and the
speeches in which he is announcing the
platform on which he asks the presiden-
tial nomination continue to attract the at
tention of the politicians in Washington,
and while the Secretary has not made any
effort to capture his audiences by bursts
Of oratory or flights Of fancy, and while
his speeches have been as free from any
thing saroring Of demagoguery as is the
man himself, it is generally conceded that
he is daily becoming better knoTn anc a
more difficn!t candidate for the anti
Roosevelt faction to defeat. Mr.. Taft has
amply demonstrated his adherence to that
body Of political and economic PROPOSE
tions which are known as the Roosevelt
policies; he has also displayed a judicial
temperament and respect for the consti-
tuition which are very attractive to some
Republicans who have, unwarrantably,
no doubt, feared that President Roosevelt
was going too far in his efforts to correct
all evil through the federal government.
-
Just at present the anti-Roosevelt fac
ton in the Republican party is much at
sea regarding q candidate. The first of
the so-called conservative candidates put
forth was Senator Knox. Mr.. Knox is a
man of ability, be haszeeeived the en-
dorsement of his state convention, and it
was hoped that he might be the man to
lead the anti-Rooseveltites to victory.
Reports of his strength began to come in
from the far west, and for time the out
look was favorable. Then bis far west
adherents we're identified as the men who
are amenable to President James ]. Hill
OF the Great Northern Railway and that
hurt the Pennsylvania. In New Eng
land, Senator Murray Crane, who quar-
relied with the President over the Rail-
way Rate Bill, made a personal canvass
and was unable to find any Knox senti-
ment, and SO reported to Senator Aldrich
when that statesmen returned recently
from Europe. The boom of Vice-presi-
| dent Fairbanks has been so seriously
| punctured that the more skillful politi-
! clans no longer take it seriously.
Speaker Cannon's boom might prove the
most powerful of all, were it not for the
Speakers great age and the fear that he
wcnld not live through his term. At
present. there are many indications that
the anti Roosevelt crowd will unite on
Governor Hughes, not because they en-
tirely like him, but because they regard
him as the most available candidate and
because before he was elected Governor
his associations ard affiliations were all
with the corporations. Should there be
q deadlock in the convention which pre-
vented the nomination of Taft, at least by
the third ballot, George B. Cortelyou,
Secretary of the Treasury, would doubt
less stand an excellent chance as the COM
promise candidate and Mr.. Cortelyou,
who has unbounded faith in his star of
destiny, which, in a few short years, has
taken him from stenographer's desk to
the second highest place in the cabinet,
is strong believer in the likelihood of
that deadlock. At Oyster Bay, however,
il is believed that there will be no dead