Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1908-04-30
NOT RULERS
CONGRESS NO LONGER IS TRULY
REPRESENTATIVE BODY.
Under Present Administration Govern,
ment Has Become a Personal
One, with President as Die
tator-Country's Danger.

tator-country's Danger.
If the shades of the fathers of the
republic deign to take notice of our
present political condition they must
view with horror the lapse from the
constitutional government they es-
tablished. The congress of the United
States was originally the supreme law
making power, responsible only to the
people who elected its members. Now,
however, congress is governed by an
oligarchy, and that oligarchy in turn
is moved by the greed for spoils to
follow where President Roosevelt
leads.
The government has become a per-
sonal one, of which the president is
the head and dictator. The whole ma
chinery of government is, to the small
est detail, being run in the interest OF
Theodore Roosevelt. The old Hanna
machine has been displaced by a more
personal vehicle to register his will
and whims. In the last Republican
convention he dictated the platform,
revised the speeches, and ordered the
Republican national committee to Sc.
lect Mr.. Cortelyou for its chairman,
giving him absolute power.
At this time, as formerly, the whole
aim of President Roosevelt is to play
personal politics, and to force an un.
willing party to either nominate one
of his favorites, or to renominate and
elect himself. He virtually ordered
Senator Hanna to pass resolutions ia
voring his nomination at the Ohio Re-
publican state convention of 1903. He
is now engaged in setting up delegates
among his subordinates in the execu'
vention.
Brave men rarely boast, or call 9th
ers towards, cravens, and weaklings.
The brave man does not threaten
those weaker than himself. President
Roosevelt is forever boasting, threat
ening, and brow-beating. But is Presi-
dent Roosevelt so steadfast and strong
that his mind once made up does not
change? On the contrary, that he is
vacillating, and plays fast and loose
with his political ideals is certain. He
has been on all sides of many ques-
lions
First a free-trader, then a tariff re-
former, now the most ardent protec-
Zionist. Once for reciprocity, now
against It. In 1896 a bimetallist, now
for nothing but the gold standard.
Once he regarded the policy of gold
recommendation as only a little less
insane than that of the free coinage
of silver"
In 1896, he denounced the farmers
as "the basest set in the land" then in
his letter of acceptance, for personal
political advantage he declared them
to be ~'steadfast, single-minded, and
Industrious"
These indications of a mind easily
changeable for political reasons be-
token a lack of steadfastness in Mr..
Roosevelt.
If the Roosevelt way of running the
government for his own personal ag'
grandizement, with the prospect of his
entangling the United States in cost
ly and dangerous undertakings, is
thought by the voters to be for their
interest, they will vote to indorse his
policies" But they must remember
that the Roosevelt who is now so hos
tile to "m~alefactors of great wealth"
and SO loud in the praises of his own
exalted virtues, has always favored
the money power.
There will be startling changes
soon. Roosevelt will again bring out
the "big stick" from its hiding place
and keep the navy from rusting. He
may find work for the army to dc
that will justify its being kept up to
a wal strength. The cattle" as he
styled congress, in his speech when
governor of New York. before the
Syracuse Chamber of Commerce in
1899, will be more than ever coerced
and forced to carry out his personal
government. Let the people beware Of
this wonderful stage-actor, and also OF
Secretary Taft, who indorses all he
does, and who is pledged to follow
Roosevelt policies if be is elected
president.