Daily Arizona silver belt., 1908-12-04
HE CAN TAKE CARE OF HIMSELF

HE CAN TAKE CARE OF HIMSELF
 They are wasting their breath and the contents of their inkpots who con- tinue to discuss the future of our ex- presidents with MT. Roosevelt as text. Various more or less impracticable ex- pedients for the employment of x-presi- dential talent have been hawked about at home and abroad, and have evident ly been heard of at the White House, for the whole question has been settled by this explicit deliverance which the New York Herald vouches for as com ing from ths president himeslf:
 And tell the country that those who have been worrying about what to do for our ex-presidents need not worry as to what they should do for this ex- president. He is able to take care of himself. During the time he has been in the White House he has had fine time, and he is going to continue to enjoy life. As I said, he is able to take care of himself, and there need be no worry as to what to do for this ex- president.
 That has an authentic ring to it, car rying conviction. We have not been worrying. but if anyone else has been, the assurance that MT. Roosevelt is fully able to take care of himself ought to be comforting. We have always re- garded the proposition here enunciated as self-evident, requiring neither proof nor assertion. Mir. Roosevelt Is abund- antly able to regulate his private life on his own terms. We cannot conceive his becoming pensioner, dependent, a sage, or an expert in statesmanship on half pay, as British writer suggests. Cicero's otiun cum dignitate is not for will take care of himself and have bully time doing it. That's the true American way, and no one should have doubted 1t would be the way of this ex-president.
 Yet there are some possibilities in MT. Roossvelt's future inviting to the speculative mind The British writer just mentioned thinks Mir Roosevelt too big man to become private citizen. He will continue to be a public figure of magnitude, circumstance that will give a- fictitious value to his writings or to anything else that he may under take. His relations with the admins tration will be delicate. "Mr. Taft, says the Spectator, from which we have been quoting, lis the inheritor of the Roosevelt tradition, but he cannot be its spokesman while We have MT. Roose- welt writing weekly in the columns of the Outlook. One of the two political centers of gravity will be in the press, and the fourth estate will acquire a dominant place in the political organ ism" And this is likely to occur, not withstanding MT. Roosevelt s sincere in- tention of sticking to his job as private citizen. MT. Taft may be free to carve out his own destiny, as we are told; it is destiny MT. Roosevelt cannot help sharing in.
 The situation MT. Roosevelt will find himself in politically after March 4 sug- gests the status of another eminent cit izen, MT. Bryan. What shall be done with MT. Bryan has been even moro widely and eagerly discussed than the problem of disposing of ex-presidents The Nebraslan, too, is able to take care of himself, nor is he willing to content himself with ignoble ease: and the task of getting rid of him, of conducting great party organization without his ad- vice and influence, is one of insuperable dimensions. Well, why should we get rid of either of them? No man is too big for leadership of the American peo- pie, and there is ample room for the en- ergies of both Roosevelt and Bryan. Moreover, the nation has need of them, the customer balancing the westerner, to keep Us morally awake. Perhaps both of them will be more useful. cor tainly mora independent, out of once than in.