Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1907-01-12
NO SENATORIAL COMBINE
Nothing In St,ry Tha, They viii
Fight the President
SENATOR SCOTS STATEMENT
Senators Are Not Expected by the
People to Surrender Their
Individual Views.
Individual Views.

1
Individual Views.
Washington, d. c., Jan. o. There
is no senatorial plot or combine to
oppose President Roosevelt and his
policies. or to prevent the nomination
of Mr.. Taft to the presidency. or t.
further the nomination of any one
else"
This. was the emphatic declaration
made bY Senator ~ b. Scott to a
West Virginia newspaper man i'm
reply to an article in the New York
| Times. alleging the existence of a plot
ITO hamper President Roosevelt. and
defeat the nomination OF Mr.. TAFT
4 am almost tired of denying silly
and sensational lies of this kind. ana
would not do so now. continued Mr..
Scott, did / not see that some of ON
own state papers were inclined to
treat this latest fake seriously"
AS for myself. no member of the
senate admires President Roosevelt
more than | do. or more freely ac-
knowledges his splendid public ser
! vice But certainly the people of
West Virginia or of any other
state do not expect their sen,
ators to surrender all opinion OF their
own, as to public matters, and accept
only that of the executive. If that
/ u,ork ~ no H., coa, Nc, ,,,f,,4,t a., ~, A
do away with congress, with all pop
ular representation and set up an alb
solute monarchy at once However,
| this is all absurd.
"As to the Brownsville affair over
which so much noise has been made,
| can only report that all desire is
full and absolute accurate information.
| Friends of the colored soldiers claim
that they were unjustly punished, that
in fact only one side of the case was
| heard. This may or may not be, but
one thing is sure, and that is that
every man who wears the uniform OF
| the United States army, and who has
risked his life in battle for the flag.
as many of these colored soldiers had
done. is at least entitled to have
| full hearing, and to be treated accord
| ing to the facts. If the president was
misinformed, and acted on misinforma.
ton. there can be no harm In cor
recting such a mistake. In fact |
know that he would be the first to ia
vor such a correction.
Not Forcing Taft.
| You can say that both the West
Virginia senators are on the best of
terms with the president, and fully
agree with him on most, If not all the
questions that are likely to come be-
fore this, or the next congress. You
can also say, and | know this TO be
fact, that President Roosevelt has not
the remotest idea of trying to force
the nomination of Mr. Taft or anyone
else on the republican party. The
president has entirely too high re.
gard for his own honor and the pro-
perties of his high position, to at
tempt to play the mere politician for
the benefit of anyone. And moreover.
know that Mr.. Taft does not expect
him to do anything of the kind.
The friends of Mr.. Taft in West
Virginia, and the friends of Mr.. Fair
banks and Mr.. Shaw. can rest assur-
ed of one thing, and that is, that there
is no plot or combination of which
the West Virginia senators are mem.
bers, in favor of or against the nom
ination of any man. AS citizen and
a republican. | expect to make up my
mind on the matter and make my own
choice That choice will be the man
who | think is best able to serve the
lentire country to the best advan
tage.
There is plenty of time yet for this
matter, and you can assure our friends
in West Virginia, that just now we are
giving more attention to the pressing
business of the senate than to poll
tics"
Calls on the President.
! Among President Roosevelt's call
ers was Senator Scott, and It is some
what noteworthy in view of mis- en-
phatic utterances above, that he en-
tered the executive office arm in arm
with Secretary Taft. Mr. Scott and
/ the president were together for nearly