Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-11-30
THAT WARNING LETTER.
What the President Really Means in i Writing to Office Holders.

Washington, Nov o9.--As was to
 have been expected, many widely diff
 ferent constructions have been placed
 on the meaning of the letter which
 President Roosevelt sent to certain of
 his cabinet officers regarding the poli-
 tical activity of employees of their
 departments. For what he termed good reasons" the president declin-
 ed to make public the text of the let ter, which was an identical communi-
 cation to the members of the cabinet
 receiving 1t. As result of these
 good reasons" AS many as dozen
 versions of the letter and it's mean
 ing have been published. Opponents
 of the administration are making poli-
 tical capital out of it: the so called anti third term people are using their construction of the letter to prove that
 Mr Roosevelt cannot be candidate
 for the presidency again in any cir cumstances, and the advocate of the claims of other men to the republi- can presidential nomination are main- taining that the letter, in terms, is favorable to their candidates.
 AS a matter of fact, none of the views indicated is quite warranted. They amount to just so much whist ling against the wind. To settle finally just what the president did write. it would seem to have been good policy to publish the text of the letter, par ticularly as erroneous versions of 1t rtair fn al, in c;,. Ia ti6n, but the "good reasons stood in the way.
 The most generally accepted con- struction of the letter is that Presi- dent Roosevelt has directed that no federal officeholder shall go to the next republican national convention as a delegate with the intention of voting for the presidents re-nomination. That is not the fact. The writer of this dispatch has read the presidents let ter. It is no violation of confidence to say that the president has not order ed that a federal official shall not go to the convention as delegate or that he shall not vote for whom he pleases when he gets there. The sal tent point of the letter is quite diff ferent from that.
 A short time ago President Roose- welt learned that some southern states were likely to send delegation to the 1908 convention instructed for him by state conventions Such ac- ton might place him in an embarrass- ing position. As member of the cab inet expressed it
 Tt would be impossible to convince everybody that the president himself has not conniyed at the selection of a delegation Instructed for him. partic- ularly if federal office holders partic- ip&ted in the convention and secured their own election as delegates. It was with the idea of preventing the selection of federal office holders as delegates pledged to their state con- ventions to vote for Roosevelt that the letter was written. The president does not say that federal office hold CT shall not attend the convention as q delegate and does not attempt to die tate for whom he shall vote if he be a delegate. That would be an impos- sible situation. His idea was to pre- vent the manipulation of conventions by federal office holders in his inter- est. If. after the delegates reach the conventions. they vote for Fairbanks. i Cannon. Taft, Hughes. Roosevelt or anybody else. they simply are exer. cising their legitimate rights. with i which neither the president nor any body else could interfere. There will | be no attempt on the part of the president to dictate to delegates how they shall vote"
 The contents of the letter bear out that statement exactly. It can be said, in addition. that the cabinet officers who have received the letter will not ssue orders under 1t. unless it should become manifest to them that em- 1loyes of their departments deliber- itely are running counter to its spirit.