The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-03-03
FAREWELL TO ROOSEVELT.

FAREWELL TO ROOSEVELT.
With Theodore ROOsevelt's retirement
tomorrow ends one of the most spectacu-
lar careers the White House has ever
known, terminating a period of contro-
versy. of agitation and unrest I'M
equalled in times of peace since the ma
ton was founded. Possibly no presi
dent with the exception of Andrew
jackson ever aroused such bitter antag-
onism or such unstinted alteration in
conflict with the representatives of the
people in congress; and Jackson himself
never disdained so cOntemptuously or
successfully the constitutional limta-
tions which were meant to prevent ex-
ecutive encroachment on the legislative
and judicial branches of government.
Like Jackson, it is impossible for par
tisan TO Judge him fairly at close range,
either as friend or as foe; and the par
allel might be carried further with the
declaration that history is unlikely ever
to give perfect judgment of him. be-
cause his personality is contradictory,
his actions so often the result of i'm
pulse and his achievements TO be
weighed only in the scale of political
prejudice.
One thing is certain, the whole coun-
try. friends and foes alike, welcome the
prospect of his retirement. Even
torchlight procession with frequent
dynamite explosions, fire alarms and
ambulance calls can be prolonged un-
duly, and Roosevelt's friends them
selves had grown to dread his unex-
pectedness, his voIubility and his bel
ligerency. As for his foes. they had
reached the frame of mind that dis
torted vision and made them see things
at night. From the purely commercial
and financial standpoint, the country is
blessed by mis- retirement-and that
seems to be the determining factor in
Judgment of public affairs nowadays
1t has been Roosevelts good fortune
TO be antagonized by the particular in
terests most heartily hated by the mass
of the people. Many approved his &C
ton who had little sympathy with his
party or his personal methods. because
they enjoyed the punishment of the
men he marked for prosecution. He had
the further good fortune to come into
Office in time to reap the result of the
agitation first begun by Mr.. Bryan in
1896. which resulted in a sound public
sentiment against the abuse of power
by aggregations of capital-a sentiment
which enabled him to compel congress
sional action in spite of his party lead
ers rather than with their approval He
became vice president during Hanna's
day, when the reign of the trusts was
supreme and capital was dominant in
every branch of government; he sue
eeeded in securing great reforms against
the desire of the most powerful of his
party associates, and he closes his Off |
cial career with the knowledge that his
party as an organization is hostile to
his policies, glad of his departure.
In suppressing rebating. forwarding
pure food legislation and limiting the
spoliation of the public domain, he has /
done great work-even his bitterest /
enemies concede that much If he could /
have retired with these achievements 1
and the minor accomplishments which |
sent with them. there could have been
no question about the value of his serv-
ice to the people. Against these stand
his constant and, in the long run. dan
gerous. defiance of the constitutional
limitations of his office; his persistent
upbuildins Of bureaucratic system in,
dependent of legislative restraint. which
viii continue as a menace to the fnteg-
rity of the nation: his autoeratic def
ance of established law and the ar
srandizement of the executive at the
sacrifice of every established principle
of free government.
The Panama revolution and the suh-
sequent establishment of the republic
by American arms: the discharge of
the eolored soldiers; the inauguration
Of forestry system by executive order
which places an immense domain be-
You'd the power Of the people to secure
either justice or common consideration:
the suggestion, born of desire, that the
central government should assume con-
stitutionel rights retained by the states
because tie states had failed to ad-
minister the trust retained by them
all these are instances only of his the
DRY that the federal government should
dispiaee the individual state whenever.
In the judgment of the executive, the