The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-05-14
CLOSE VIEW OF ROOSEVELT President is Unpopular in Washington. DOES NOT FOOL REPORTERS Analysis of What Executive Has
 Not Done. Keeps Busy Advertising Grand stand Plays by Coddling Newspaper
 Men--Inside Facts of the
 Alton Deal.
DOES NOT FOOL REPORTERS
BY CHARLES A. EDWARDS.

BY CHARLES A. EDWAHDs'
 Washington, May 13.--(Special.).- It positively Is astounding 10 people here in Washington who know Presi- dent Roosevelt. at short range, to read about his popularity in the country at large, and the further away the more popular he seems to be. There must be something in that saying that dis tance lends entertainment to the view. The closer you get to the man the less you will like him. He impulsively tells of him, but the minute the mans back Is turned and the man who does not want that thing done gets ms ear, ne just as impulsively goes back on wna. second man that 1t shall be as ne men and nothing very long.
 He has made many grandstSand at .Sa npnnys p5ayy wanted. but name one thing ne mas done or advocated that has been o1 any practical benefit to the people. ana advocated and done that have been or would have been a detriment to the in- terests of the people. What good, so far, has the railroad rate bill been to the consumers and shippers or the coun-
 Every suit that has been brought against the combinations or the rail- roads has been brought through the
  law, two laws that were on the statute books before the enactment of the rail road rate law and simply never had been enforced.
 Not After Rich.
 The people of his country have got the idea into their heads that MT !" Roosevelt is after the rich. the preda- tory rich and M that he is giy,ngg E. them ne no hurting them so bad as he is the peo- pie who are dependent on the growth of the railroads and their expansion and their ability to haul the crops 10 market Mir Roosevelt did not hesitate to take the money of the predatory rich during the last presidential cam paign. when he was cheek by Jowl with the whole bunch of them and hob. nobbing with them as to the best way to win the election. After the cleo tion, however he turns on them and in order to make a grandstand play, he asserts that he is going to do things to them which scares capital into hid ing and the railroads cannot borrow any money to make extensions or build new lines that are needed to haul the commerce of the country.
 Regulation and control of railroads Is all right. It is Democratic policy and Democratic doctrine stolen by Republican administration to make ii popular. and its popularity today is based on policies, doctrines, and ideas stolen from the Democratic platform. The Democratic platform. however.
 
 erty. or tried to wield the big stick to scare capital off the face of the earth. That is what Roosevelt has done in order to create little cheap popular ity.
 You can take my word for it, the veneer will be washed of this political tin deity before his term expires and the people will know him as do the cor respondents in Washington and the members of Congress. He has not a dozen friends in Congress. on either afraid to say. their soul is their own. on account of the patronage stick he wields. They, also, are playing the political game. and they dare not ex- had the courage to do SO, they would be astounded to know that four -fifths of the men to whom they express them would agree with them. and thus the would vanish like thin smoke. It is this servile sycophancy of the mem bers of Congress that maintains th~ popularity of the President out in the country, added to the servility of the daily press of the country in giving circulation to all the ideas and schemes matched in the White House. ,i
 COddJes Correspondents. Z 9
 Whenever he wants to head off some one or some thing that interferes with to the people with a grandstand play. he sends down for bunch of news paper correspondents for the papers that slobber on him and has them up to the White House. Then he patf them familiarly on the back and tells them in a heart to heart talk what he making them write the matter in the third person and never quote him.
 He then Is in a position to deny anything that may come out that is not pleasing to him, which he does with a flourish of trumpets and there by adds new members to his Ananias Club. He can not and does not fool They have looked in his trunk and they know him. But 1t is very flattering to the young correspondents to have the President of the United States pat them on the back and call them "old bow" and tell them what they believe