The Hawaiian gazette., 1907-01-11
ROOSEVELT s
OPPOSITION
(Mail Correspondence to the Adver-
tiser)

| w ASHlNGloN, ~. ~ DSCeHlber 80
Politically. the Christmas holiday;
are filed with hostile preparations
| The days that should have flown by
| with pleasant greetings are spent ir
| office and library digging for data
Clerks are scurrying. No curtaileo
| working hours for them. There Is
serious business ahead.
All this because President Roosevelt
has discharged without honor three
companies, constituting a battalion OF
the Twenty-fifth Infantry, which is a
negro regiment. and because Senator
Foraker, "Fire-alarm' Foraker, as he
was known in the earlier days, has
taken up the popular agitation against
the Presidents action. THE country
as the domain of the United States of
America outside the District of Column
bia is termed here, seems to be taking
the matter rather seriously. The less
than ten miles square of land which
comprises the national capital and the
District of Columbia thinks 1t is a
mighty serious thing. Everybody Is
agog with more or less excitement. The
brigade of long noses scent row. A
row of almost any kind interests Wash
ington.
The quarrel was shaping up several
weeks ago. but 1t had slumbered along
in the Senate till it began to seem
like an affair for some time after the
holidays. But Senator Foraker is moth
ing if not aggressive. Securing the
floor the very last day before the ad-
journment, he spoke to his resolution
recurring an investigation of the dis
all 20 a
been implicated in the shooting up
of Brownsville, Texas. His speech was
q firebrand. Senator Lodge of Massa-
chusetts as the Presidents defender,
but claiming only fair play for the
President and all concerned, hit back in
the liveliest kind of fashion. The Sen,
ate adjourned that day in ferment.
There was plainly trouble ahead.
Then came the shooting in Oklahoma
of Captain Edgar A. Macklin, who had
been officer of the day when the
Brownsville ARRAY occurred. An as
sassin called the captain to the back
door and several shots were poured into
his body. President Roosevelt had al
ready been stirred with resentment at
the attack upon himself by Senator
Foraker. 1t made him long for
chance to have 1t out with the SEN
ator. and hardly had the Senate ad-
journed before orders went over to the
War Department, which is just across
the street from the White House Of
fees, to "get busy and dig out the rec
ords on cases that Senator Foraker
had been citing. The argument Of the
brilliant orator and resourceful lawyer
had struck home to the White House.
PRESIDENT WORKED UP.
But the shooting of Captain Macklin
was more than the President could
stand. There were fireworks around
the White House offices the morning
the newspaper dispatches told about 1t.
The President believes it was, in part
at least, the outgrowth of the agitation
. gainst the discharge of the troops. He
blames Senator Foraker and he blames
Gilchrist Stewart of the New York
Constitutional League. But he did not
rest quiet with expressions of resent
ment. He called in Secretary of State
Root who was once Secretary of War,
and Secretary of War Taft. The two
trudged over to the White House early
in n day that everybody supposed
would be a very quiet and uneventful
day, being tht last Saturday before
Christmas. Around Washington, es-
recially in government circles. 1t is
of an, offense to work on the
last Saturday before Christmas when
comes early the following
week.
However, the President meant busi-
ness, and he had important things to
wifi ha tyun SaNrata riac He
must have new evidence, for he in
tends to meet the issue with Senator
Foraker squarely. The three talked 1t
over, and Milton d. Purdy, who has
the official title of Assistant to the At
torney General, where the other as
sstants are known as Assistant Attor-
neys General, was picked as the best
man. Mr.. Purdy Is q shrewder and an
ADLER man than he looks. He is smooth |
IF face, but be-spectacled, and would |
pass in a crowd for young man of 80
or &c. He has more years/than that
TO his credit. He is nearer forty, but,
while that is young in comparative
sense, Mr.. Purdy is old in trust busting.
He began graphing with the tentacles
If the octopus way back in the days
IF the Northern Securities case. Then
lie was n lawyer in Minnesota. served
Is United States District Attorney, and
he Attorney General brought him
Iown to Washington and put him in
he Department of Justice. He con-
inued to grapple the tentacles of the
octopus, every time one was thrust
within view of the department, and
ontinued also to give a good account
f himself in the struggle. Eventual
v there was a vacancy In the office
( Assistant to the Attorney General.
which office was created to have i'm
Mediate supervision over trust busting.
lie has served there for fully three
ears and what there is about trust
MASKING that Mr.. Purdy does not
now is hardly worth knowing. Dur &
ng the past six or eight months he has
ad supervision over the preparation !
I civil and criminal suits against the :
tandard Oil Company and has made ,
II the cases ready for the eye of the =
-ttorney General. He knows how to
ct evidence, is aware what evidence >
necessary in a given case. and can I
lso get It into presentable form.
Accordingly. as Senator Foraker de-
ares to the country that the evidence =
n which the President acted was in
efficient, the President proposes 10
ave the evidence gathered In affidavit
arm nv an axnart He could Dnf have q