The Columbus commercial., 1908-05-17
PEOPLE NOT RULERS
CONGRESS NO LONGER Ie TRULY
REPRESENTATIVE BODY.
Under Present Administration Govern
ment Has Become Personal
One, with President as Die
tatcr-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 governEe they es-
tablished. The congress of the Uoited
States was originally the supreme law
making power, responsible only TO the
people who elected it's 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 Roos welt
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 more
personal vehicle TO register his will
and whims. In the last Republican
convention he dictated the platform,
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 1908. He
is now engaged in setting up delegates
among has subordinates in the execu-
tive Offices to control the next con-
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
vaciIlating, and plays fast and loose
with his political ideals is certain. He
has been on all sides of many ques
tions
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 golG
monometallism 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 |
the United States in cost |
ly and dangerous undertakings, is |
thought by the voters to be for their |
they will vote to indorse his |
policies" But they must remember |
that the Roosevelt who is now SO hos
tile to "malefactors 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 rustins He |
may find work for the army to do |
that will justify its being kept up to
a war 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 he is elected
president.