The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1909-01-13
The Battle of the ''Pitchfork'
And the Big Stick"

Inc reading OF Senator Tillman s
defense against the sensational attack
of Roosevelt, impresses us with three
things: First, there was no intention
al dpulicity as well as no technical
dishonesty, in Tillman's desire and
undertaking" to purchase a small
portion of the Oregon lands which ne
wished rescued from the hands of
gTafterS. Second, that ROOseveIt'S
action was dictated, as the senator de
clared, by d malicious spirit, the de-
sire to get even" with an enemy,
and his method of operation was as
extraordinary as it was reprehensible.
Third. that United States senators
and other public officials cannot be
ACKNOWLEDGMENT from men or condi-
tons that come within the sphere of
public condemnation; indeed that the
highest political ethics. demand that
public officers should not approach
within mailing distance of the "un-
clean things" save with the sword of
Gideon to smite and destroy them.
Senator Tillman's speech was pune
tUated by trutl and his severe cen
sure of Rooseveltian methods will
meet with hearty approval. The
country awaits with interest the full
fillment of his threat to open the
sluiceway into the presidents true
character that all may enter the Sc
/ cret recesses of his personality and
examine the peculiar machinery that
governs his mental processes.
Tillman can add nothing to the
| present conclusions of the observa-
ant citizen concerning Roosevelt's
smallness of soul, his rank disregard
| for the feelings Of others, his intense
ccnceit. his dOmineering nature, and
/ bis vindictiveness of spirit. His con-
temptible insult to JEFFERSON Davis:
his diregaTd of the wishes of the peo-
pie in the IndianOla postoffice incident
and the appointment of Crum in
Charleston; his petty spite in de-
priving a great newspaper of the
weather service because its Wash
iugton correspondent had accus-
ed the Roosevelt children of teas
ing a turkey; his cruel treatment Of
mississippi river steamboat man with
out warrant and entirely because he
fancied his majestic person had
been approached trifie too close; his
recent rude behavior toward a school
girl, because, forsooth, she had. not
shown a respect for him cOmmensur-
ate with his idea of what is due Amer
ica's great and glorious Pooh Bah-all
these things, We say, and many, many
more like them, are known both far
and wide.
But what the public would really
like to know is the extraordinary in
teTnal conformation of a man who is
able to talk so big" and to act 50
little" If South Cardinals senator
viii explain this he wifi be fully for
given all his trespasses. even by those
who may think he has not escaped the
present scrap with garments white as
those of the angel Gabriel.
Il was not aware, exclaimed Till
man. that these darts of mine had
UulNCtSu III Tie CASNuAlNG niue anu
stung him so, but the eagerness and
intensity with which he has present
ed his case against me, his making a
precedent when none has existed be-
fore, his taking from the committee
to which he has forwarded the papers
and giving them to the press before
that committee had considered them,
indicates that Theodore Roosevelt
enjoys 10 the limit the feeling Of get
ting even with Ben Tillman and lays
on the big stick with the keenest
relish, doubtless believing that the
,pitchfork' mas gone out Of business"
The Journal, for one, is indeed sad
/ to know that the "pitchfork' has not
gene out of business, If it is to be
employed successfully in turning over
the mass of debris with which Roose-
/ welt blocks the vision from following
/ aim, in his divers subterranean ways,
and in exposing him-shOwing the
world just what he is Long may the
.;pitcheork' wave, like the star-Span-
gIec banner, over the land of the free
and the home of the brave, if its
brandishing results in impressing upon
the brave" and free" ones the ex-