Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1908-02-14
BID FOR THIRD TERM
Presidents Message So Con-
Strued In Washington.
SEEKS DEMOCRATIC SUPPORT.
Chief Executive Has Revised His
Views on Several Important Matters.
APPlauds What He Formerly De-
nounced-A Good Preacher, but a
Poor Performer-Bryan's Visit to the
Capital.

Applauds What He Formerly De-
nounced-A Good Preacher, but a
Poor Performer-Bryan's Visit to the
Capital.
By WILLIS j. ABBOT.
Of course the message of the presi-
dent to both houses of congress created
a sensation in Washington. Ostensibly
urging new legislation on the employ
ers' liability law which was recently
declared unconstitutional, but practi-
cally putting forth a political pro-
gramme which makes the Chicago
platform of 1896 look like a conserva-
tive document, it rOuses some wonder
In the minds of those who do not for
get that he should ever have said that
his opinion of the Oklahoma constitu-
ton was unfit for publication. Per,
haps the lesson which Mr.. Roosevelt
learned by the Oklahoma election has
led him somewhat to change his views
as to what the people of the country
desire. At any rate this latest message
of his outdoes Oklahoma and found its
AhO9b JON \AdAhpAOA III tAC PCApOh VI
Hon. jeff Davis of Arkansas. who leap
ed into the arena with an instant de
mand that 10000 extra copies of the
message should be printed for general
circulation as the best Democratic doc
trine that had ever emanated from the
White House. Probably Senator Davis
was right We haven't had much DEM
ocratic doctrine from the White House
since the first days of Mr.. Cleveland's
first term. Some of the Republicans
are now wondering whether Mr.. Roose-
Welt should be nominated at Chicago or
at Denver. All agree that the message
was bid for a nomination for a third
term and that what he sought by it
was Democratic support.
The Politics of the Message.
1t is true enough that most of what
Mr. Roosevelt said in his message has
been expressed at various times. but
in much more temperate language, in
Democratic platforms and by Demo
cratic leaders. Much of what he said
might well go into a Democratic cam
pdlSA ICAL OOOh pION luc
teristically abusive expressions were
left out. The Democratic party began
in 1896 its fight against exactly the
same forces of predatory wealth that
Mr.. Roosevelt has thus belatedly dis
covered, In that year he was as bit
terly hostile to the Democratic party
and to all it stood for as today he is
delighted to take its doctrine to his
bosom. l remember we'll a collOQuy
which | had with him, which he has
never denied, in which he bitterly at
tackled such men as Altgeld and Till
man and sneered at Bryan because of
the views they then held. In that con-
versatiOn l urged upon Mr.. Roosevelt,
who was then police comm isSianer i'll
New York, my belief that the silver
movement meant something of far
greater Importance than the mere free
coinage of silver at 16 to 1. told him
what every intelligent observer not
blinded by partisanship knew at that
time-that the silver cry was but the
expression of deeper humanitarian
purpose; that it was the expression of
a revolt against the growing power of
what today Mr.. Roosevelt is pleased to
describe, and properly so, as predatory
wealth. 1t was the cutlery of a strug-
Cling people, and about the issue it
named they rallied because they saw
the wealthy malefactOrs'' and the rich
criminals whom Mr. Roosevelt now de-
nOunces aligned against it. He then
stood with the men whom he now de-
nounces. His denunciation today Of
these men is no more bitter than was
his denunciation in public and in pri-
vate in the campaign of 1896 of the
men who were then attempting to
drive them out of power. He has prof
tied by long silence, and one wonders
whether he hopes now to profit by
sudden speech.
Yet whatever one may think of
the keenest, shrewdest pol
itician the country has ever known, Or
whatever construction may be put
upon his motives for sending this mes
sage at this critical moment, the fact
remains that all he said was true; that
his demands for legislation in behalf of
the masses of the people, his insistence
that action should be taken to bring
malefactors to justice, his at
tack on government by injunction, his
urgency for the correction of the con-
weaknesses of the employ
ers' liability law, his request for an APP
of the physical properties
of the railroads of the United States
indeed, all his concrete propositions
are to be applauded as they were ap-
plauded by the Democrats only in the
house and senate.
Preaching and Performance.
But, accepting the righteousness and
the business of his preachments, a care
full student of public affairs will look
back to discover what have been his |
performances. He has had absolute
control of the government of the Unit.
ed States for almost eight years. He
has welded the big stick and express |
ed himself in big voice, but thus far
he has accomplished nothing or next to |
nothing for the masses of the people. |
He helped to settle the coal strike, and
the settlement has not profted the
miners a little, though it has profited !
the operators and coal railroads enor-
mously. No step toward the reduction
If tariff taxation has been taken under
his strenuous administration, and none
IS promised. Under no president have
the expenditures of the country been
so great proprotionally as under his,
and today the treasury department
aces deficit already estimated at /
;S5,000,000 and which will undoubtedly ]
each $150,0OO,0OO if the present regime
# extravaganza continues The Roose-
Telt administration closes its existence
n the midst of a financial panic which
las checked railroad building all
through the United States, which has
lOco1 down fao+o,.;oc In, ox.o,.,- at4w,