The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1909-01-19

Washington, Jan. 1S.-A sensational
and bitter attack on President Roose-
welt was made in the house today by
Mr.. Willett OF New York. His re-
marks, which were delivered under
the license Of general debate on the
pension appropriation bill, were cut
short by a vote of the house.
Characterizing President Roosevelt
as a gargoyle and as this pigmy de-
scendant of Dutch tradespeople," and
charging him with having ''estab-
lished a court in the White House
which would have delighted the heart
of Alexander Hamilton" Mr.. Will
lett made one of the most bitter at
tacks on the chief executive ever
heard in the house. Mr.. Willett took
for his theme The Passing of Roose-
Velt,' and In speech of great
length dealt with numerous of the
presidents acts since he came into
office and scathingly denounced them.
After declaring that, in the face of
all sorts of conditions, Americans
were possessed of a universal sense
people "it must be confessed" a chief
magistrate who has himself no sense
of humor, moving like horse tender
over the bayfield, Of American activi-
ties, stirring up every drying blade of
once green grass, to let it fall drier
than before; quarrelng one day with
the practical politicians, then with
the part-your- hair the middle re-
cruits, and then at the socialists, then
at the great Industrial corporations,
wrestling in agony with the spirit of
Noah Webster and our glorious Eng
lish language; taking a fall out Of
nature fakirs; exorting our women to
avoid race suicide, cannot but be an
unmixed nuisance.
Plays the Tyrant.
He plays the tyrant, to be sure.
but he Is tyrant who fears the
carnival tinker. He sees things that
have a bad smell, but the fresh breeze
of Capitol hill does not let the odor
linger.
He tries our patience, but he is
always good to laugh at. Thank heav-
en- for the things that make us laugh.
Without that we might easily be-
come raw, untamed Anglo-Saxons,
making much of magma charta, bel
lowing about an effete bill of rights,
or even ready to fight for freedom.
for though freedom of speech, and
freedom of press, as did our unciv-
iliZed ancestors at Lexington and
Bunker Hill"
~ |,
Of Mr. Roosevelt. beginning with his
experience as a cowboy, down to the
present time, and accused him. in his
early manhood, of having had pre-
posterous notions, of having knitted"
Secretary Long, of being "a warrior
alone in Cuba" of having won the
governorship of New York by
mere fluke," when the false halo
of San Juan hill was above his head;
the beneficiary of assassins, and last,
and crowning piece of luck, the nomi-
nee for president when all the aggres-
sive elements of passion wanted to see
their own candidate defeated, the
mammoth jocularity has got to laugh
at every appearance; the garygoyle
has been funny from the hour it left
its native quarry"
"Solecist Sui -Generis."
Continuing, Mr.. Willett said
"And, Mr.. Chairman, should the
gentlemen who view this curious fig-
ure with feigned admiration ask me
how any son of Adam can be at the
same time a hay tender, a jocularity
and a garygoyle, I can only answer
that this particular hero is an eccen-
trio exception to all rules. a solecist
sui-generis, mixed meta phor-vivant,
an impossibility; comet that roves
at will, regardless of the limitations
of order and law that apply to earth
and moon, to stars and planets.
He boasts of Irish blood but no
historic Irishman would have treated