The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-09-10
ROOSEVELT PASSES JUDGMENT.

The cases involving the bribery
| charges against those who are alleged
to have been in the jackpot conspiracy
and corrupted by the election of Mr..
Lorimer to the United States Senate in
Illinois are yet pending in the courts
of that State No determination has
been reached as to any of them, and
for all that the public knows the mat.
ter may be a lob put up by the friends
of Hopkins to unseat Lorimer and give
Hopkins another chance for the Senate,
Indeed, this has been covertly charged,
and in proof of it the point is made
that the one who originated these
charges wrote them out and hawked the
matter about TO various publications
for considerable time before he could
get any Of them to take notice of what
he had written.
And vet Mr.. Roosevelt finds no diff
6culty in determining these cases off
hand. He not only finds all OF the leg
islators who are charged with guilt,
guilty, but he stoutly and unqualifedly
determines that Senator Lorimer HIM
self is also gnilty, and that he is re-
sponsible for The guilt of others as
Roosevelt finds them to be culprlts.
Accordingly, he refuses to sit at the
banquet table with Lorimer.
There has been recent development
in the case which shows that there
was a scheme Matched to bribe enough
legislators to vote for Lorimer to elect
him. While it is probably true that
undertaken to charge completely or cor
ruption upon Mr. Lorimer in connec
tion therewith; and, as Mr., Roosevelt
finds Senator Lorimer guilty without
reserve. lie not only assumes the guilt
of the legislators, whose guilt has not
yet been proved, but he assumes that
Lorimer was a guilty participant in the
crime of bribery; a bribery that it will
be remembered is yet improved IN the
court where the case is pending.
Mr.. Roosevelt lays great stress upon
the confession Of some of these rascals,
but yet a confession is not always to be
believed. especially of a political jobber
and liar. 1t often happens that there
is motive behind confession that
seems to be sincere, but which in fact
is not sincere, but a put-up job, No
qualms of conscience, however, ever
trouble Mr.. Roosevelt in the least He
assumes the evil story to be proved ex-
actly as confessed by the participants
themselves even thouph that confession
marks them as liars and felons. They
may be lying for an evil political pur
pose or personal grudge, and the court
trial may show this; but Mr.. Roosevelt
is not willing to wait He takes upon
himself the immediate decision of the
case.
All this is characteristically Roose-
veitian, to be sure; but it can hardly
be satisfactory to candid public, even
though that public is very much in
clined to think that something radically
rotten permeates Illinois politics; bat
yet since the matter is IN court for ju-
dicial determination on the facts, the
evidence, and the law, the fair minded
American citizen will be much inclined
to leave it just where it is until the
final judicial determination. Mr.. Roose,
welt, of course, is the exceptional Amer
lean, and he is never content to let
alone until he himself has
roped it in and put upon it his own
particular brand.