The morning journal-courier., 1908-10-14

their bluff. Judge Robertson.
 
 THAT ROOSEVELT ENDORSEMENT
 Tho Associated Press gave currency Monday evening to dispatch telling Of the receipt by Mir Lllley of a letter from President Roosevelt in which the request was made for copy of cer- tain speech made by the Waterbury congressman at the session of congress last spring, The dispatch concludes as follows; "The President adds to the let ter his hearty wish for MT. Lillcy's suo- cess" The Waterbury Republican prints the news but concludes its para graph with these words; "The Presl- dent closes the letter by cordially wish Ing Mir Lilley success in his cam paign."
 Like most of tho statements emanat- ing from I.llley Headquarters this one Is decidedly confusing and misleading. Nor can the situation be cleared until the exact text of the letter Is seen and studied. If President Roosevelt has cordially offa.sd Mir Llley his best wishes in tho present campaign there can be no objection whatever to the fact being made known through the publication of tho letter itself It is us- ual with the President when he holds to opinions of this character to say so openly. He would scorn to express his hearty interest in friends campaign and then mark tho letter "conhdential" If MT Lllley on the other hand, has actually received such a letter express ly approving his candidacy and wishing 1t well and declines to give it's text full publication, the election has come upon demonstration of personal modesty anu SoilSiuei dlpH uHuSudl III A cam paign. If he has such letter from the President, which was intended for his personal delectation and for pri- vate circulation, that fact ought also to be known. It would in a sense Jus tify the obscure and misleading dis patch sent out by the Associated Press and the news printed in the Republi- can.
 We regret to make such an insinua- ton but we hesitate to accept the story of President Roosevelt's endorsement in the absence of the full text of the letter It is .1ot our fault that we can not accept the endorsement as genuine It Is MT. Iilleys fault. Thore have been Iso many occasions in his career when hesitation of speech took the place of candor, when inaccuracies of statement under oath made for the rejection of his testimony by scrupuous people and when original statements and asser- tions had later to be corrected and modified that thoughtful people find themselves compelled to ask in each new instance for tho evidence 10 rein force tho general proposition made. It is only a few evenings ago that he made certain definite statements about the work of the public utilities com mission only to he compelled within twenty-four hours to reject them and to substitute other statements of an opposite character
 | We admit that this is very unfortun- ate for Mir. Lilley but no other con. clusion on our part is possible. We dc mot say that he has not in his posses sion letter from President Roosevelt. which closes with one of those conven. tlonal and personal offers of courteous interest in tho party addressed, such as With best wishes, remain" etc, but we cannot believe, under all of the cir. cumstanoes which hedge his political { character in, that he has in his posses | sion a letter from President Roosevelt or from Judge Taft in which his candi. dacy is expressly endorsed and ap. proved. If he has he should make if public at once first because he is en- titled as a candidate for public ofTict to the influence of such letter, a right we have no idea President Roose. welt would withhold. and second be. cause as a candidate for the governor ship he cannot afford for 2 minute tc rest under the suspicion of having pur posely taken advantage of a conven. tional act of courtesy to give the vot CTS of Connecticut tho impression tha, President Roosevelt believes fin him ant that he deserves their support at the polls.
 Mr. Lilley should make public at ohc, the full text of the Roosevelt letter The columns of The Journal-C Courle, are open to its complete publication.
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