The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-11-30
TIE PRESIDENT
 ID OFFICEH0LDERS He is as Good as His Word in That Important
 Matter.
A MARK OF SINCERITY
But Something Even More Explicit May Yet be
 Required

National convention as advocates of lIlis renomination There were those twho said he would not do this. He has done this. There were those w7o
 said he would not reiterate his re- tfusal to run again, The order to the
 heads of the cabinet departments in-
 directly renounces renominatlon arH;
 stops just short of repeating what he said on election night in 1904. His non-repetition of that in terms can be 1 excused if he in substance, but not in 'terms, says the same thing again.
 He wifi be credited with virtually having said it again by what he wrote
 on Saturday. He certainly forbids those who may be offceholders an6
 who may be elected as delegates to
 support him for renomination. He might forbid them to accept election Ito be delegates at all That, however,
 could easily be regarded as an in- Infringement on the rights of district conventions to choose any men they llwished to be delegates. That might, lindeed, he regarded as af act al- imost tyrannous in it's character. The President prefers to forbid officehold- 'ers, if elected to be delegates, to sup lport him for renomination, and ne 1 does so in terms which recall his re-
 fusal of renomination, the night of his election in 1904.
 There will be those who will insist
 that the Presidents omission again to
 say that he will not accept another
 pomihation will still leave to him the power indirectly to promote. it. and | with an insincere dramatic flourish, hteluctantly to accept 1t This esti- Innate of the President as man of licunning or finesse or of double tongue ltcannot be prohibited This Is a free Ilcountry. A citizen has legal right Ito, construe a President as meanly as
 he may wish. But the Presidents ltmoral right to be taken at his plain word cannot be questioned That he will adhere to his plain word will be l,assumed by plain men until he shall l do something which will uninistakably show he never meant, or does not
 now mean, to adhere to 1t. Such an exhibition is very unlikely. To forbid | offlceholders to favor him for renom- ination and then even covertly to let them work for his renonination would expose the President to an ac- cusation of craftinees which vowa Sravely injuie him if nominated, and equip his opponents with imputatioHs against him that would enable them to arraign his sincerity and his intel- lectual honesty before millions of peo- ple who would delight to conyfctllim on such charges.
 Neither he, nor any man in his place would wish to be charged with duplicity without being able to refute such a charge. The President would have great difficulty in refuting such "a charge after his letter of November, h1904, and after his circular letter to his cabinet heads on Saturday. We
 believe he thinks more of the moral symmetry of his historical fame than
 he would or could think of any po- lftical success by political indirectiou.
 We believe that his opinion Is poor concerning those who have given to his renunciation of renomination a low moral rating We shall be sur prised if some who have offenslvely given to the Presidents character a low moral rating will not make haste
 to drop that estimate, to renounce 1r to revise their expression or frankly
 to admit their own mistake.
 Certainly, the country will accept the Presidents letter of yesterday as
 final and sincere until he shal prove
 that it should not be so accepted. We apprehend, however, that event
 ually an even more explicit reitera- ton of his refusal may be required. This is cynical world Politics on its lower ranges must be regarded as 0 rambling pursuit. Every fat torer has been careful to say that the President could surely be slH3ted net withstanding his renunciation of 1904 There has been no proof of this Man ifestly, no proof could be Furnished ifestly, no proof could be furnished The statement can only rest cn as- sumption and can only be inspired by fattery by interest or " oalcu- lation The President w0ul l have to cooperate with those who lgitly es- innate his good faith before their eStl- mate of that good faith sould be test ed. He would have to become the ac- complice of his flatterers in order 10 give to their flattery a chance to ma terialize.
 We cannot believe him e be capa- ble of this We should ID, Ike @ven to imagine him to b. capable If it We prefer to regard nin as a man Lf his word whether ontv once gYtn or whether given {. second or q third time, under the impulse of those who have made light ot his word or would have him make light Of it.
 By next spring we expect nc doubt wiA be anywhere ente "Ainei 7a the Presidents sincerity and deternina tion, Congress will ave been nelf a year in session then. fts legislative rec I'd will then nave been made up. That will necessarily be rece"d Of a tentative and unJA. sfaStory sort, for the members o1 congress wll themselves be facing the same elee- ton at which the candidates ''r Pres ident will conf 1nt one another. MT. Roosevelt, as a man true to his word, fee from ambition and desirous only of the welfare of his country viii he far happier and far noce useful in tic character of a consistent states-t man than he would be in that cf a seeker of a renomin GttJn, by in lirect means and at the exp9 ISe a. his moral firnlness and of his moral stature in history .--Brooklyn Eagle