The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-12-13
ROOT WOULD Be
IAFT'S SUCCESSOR
Senate Seems to Him a Step
ping Stone Into the
White House.
MAN is MUCH MISJUDGE0.
NOT COLD HEARTED AS MANY
PEOPLE WOULD LIKE TO THINK
OF HIM-HIs AMBITION CAR
RES HIM TO SUCCESS.
MAN is MUCH MISJUDGED.
By Sheldon S. Cline.y

Washington, Dec. 12.-Wherever a
New Yorker is met with in Washing
ton he places himself in an attitude
to receive congratulations upon what
now appears the certainty that Elihu
Root will be elected to the United
States senate to succeed Thomas G.
Plat. For quite number Of years
now New Workers have taken no part
in conversations that had to do with
the merits and abilities of United
States senators. They have displayed
little evidence of enthusiasm over
the men the empire state has sent to
represent it in the greatest delibera-
tive body on earth"
But they are proud of Root as well
they may be, even though they may
not have learned to love him. The
austere Secretary of State is a figure
to be admired, though his personality
is not one to inspire devotion BY
those whose unwilling admiration he
has compelled, Mr.. Root has been de-
scribed as "congealed intellect and
in other frigid terms, but these terms
of unendearment are not wholly de-
served. Many a man earns the repu-
tation of being cold and distant whose
heart beats just as warm and true as
that of his more fulsome brother. Vice
President Fairbanks has for years
been termed the human icicle," but
the writer recalls that the night Mark
Hanna died he saw Fairbanks sit in
q corridor of the Arlington Hotel and
sob like a woman bereaved
Ambition Succeeds.
President-elect Taft has announced
that he had hoped to retain Mr.. Root
in his cabinet as Secretary of State.
There is not member of the senate
who would not gladly accept the pre-
miership Of the cabinet. Why then,
is often asked, does Root prefer to ex-
change the state portfolio for a senate
seat? The writer has not been taken
into the confidence of the Secretary of
State, but he feels justified IN guessing
that the thing which brought Mr.. Root
back into the cabinet is now taking
him to the senate. That thing is am
bition.
Elihu Root wants to be president of
the United States. He has fortune,
and he has had every honor public life
presidency. Service in the senate can
add nothing to his distinction, but SER
vice OF the right sort in the senate
might well add to his public prestige
and his popularity.
Presidency the Lure.
1t is no secret that it was the lure of
the presidency that brought Root back
to the cabinet, after he had resigned
the secretaryship of war to return to
his law practice. President Roose-
welt held out the hope that this years
nomination might go to the brilliant
New Yorker, and it was well known at
the time that he was Roosevelt's first
choice for the succession.
The turn of the political wheel final
~ convinced Mr. Roosevelt, as it did
Mr.. Root, that while Root might Sc
cure the Republican nomination he
would be in danger of defeat at the
polls. Because he had been at the
head OF the New York bar and closely
identified with the great financial In
terests conferred at the Metropolis,
Root would have had to make his
campaign under cloud of suspicion.
and this was not year in which a
candidate suspected of such leanings
could have been elected.
Won Great Renown.
Roots services at the head of the
State Department had been failure.
therefore. SO far as advancing his
presidential ambitions. He had won
lasting renown in the field of world di-
plomacy. won the right to be ranked
among the very greatest of American
Secretaries of State, but the lime
light does not often penetrate the Sc
clusion Of the State Department
1t became clear to Mr.. Root that to
win popular leadership he must seek
other lines of activity. The Senate Of
fered the most inviting field TO man
OF his tastes and abilities. 1t is true
that for some years the Senate itself
and the men who rule that body have
not been high in popular esteem. But
the fault lies with the Senators, not
with the Senate as forum. To
man with the commanding ability and
exalted prestige of Elihu Root, the
United States Senate offers the most
promising field to be found anywhere
in American public life. If he will go
there and use all his great powers in
fighting the fight of the people, he
can make himself as much an idol of
the people as Theodore Roosevelt has
been.
People Need Champion.
The people need q champion in the
Senate more than in any other place
under the government. The people
have champions there. 1t is true. but
they are not men of the Root mold
And thare championship is ineffective