The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-01-07
ROOSEVELT s
OPPOSITION
Chance of Renomina-
ton Less--Legislation
ImperiIed.
(Mail Correspondence to the Adver-
tiser.)

(Mail Correspondence to the Adver-
tiser.)
WASHINGTON, D. c., December %
Politically, the Christmas holiday!
are filled with hostile prepa ations
The days that should have flown bI
with pleasant greetings are spent II
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 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 1.-The country,
as the domain of the United States of
America outside the District of Colum-
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 it is
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 it 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
requiring an investigation of the dis
charge of the soldiers alleged to have
been implicated in the shooting up"
of Brownsville. Texas. His speech was
a 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 Sem
ate adjourned that day in a 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 affray 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 it 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
against the discharge of the troops. He
biames Senator Foraker and he blames
Gilchrist Stewart of the New York
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 a day that everybody supposed I
would be a very quiet and uneventful
day. being the last Saturday before
Christmas. Around Washington, es-
pecially in government circles, it is
of an offense to work on the
asst Saturday before Christmas when
Christmas comes early the following
week.
However, the President meant busi-
less. and he had important things to
ak over with the two Secretaries. He
must have new evidence, for he IN
ends to meet the issue with Senator
Foraker squarely. The three talked it
'ver. and Milton d. Purdy, who has
he official title of Assistant to the At
orney General, where the other as
istants are known as Assistant Attor-
eys General. was picked as the best
man, Mr.. Purdy is a shrewder and an
bier man than he looks. He is smooth ,
( face, but be-spectacled. and would
ass in a crowd for a young man of 80
II 35. He has more years than that
o his credit He is nearer forty, but,
Thile that is young in comparative
ense, Mr.. Purdy is old in trust busting.
Ie began graphing with the tentacles
Z the octopus way back in the days =
{ the Northern Securities case. Then
e was lawyer in Minnesota, served
$ United States District Attorney, and
ne Attorney General brought him
own TO Washington and put him -
ne Department of Justice He con- d
inued to grapple the tentacles of the >,
ctopus, every time one was thrust =
'ltnin view of the department. and G
ontinued also to give good account Il
himself in the struggle. Eventual e.
Continued on Page Two.) h