The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1910-09-07
with absolute unfairness.
'DcmagOgue And Dicta,or

oiily foundation of justice announcaC
what I will do just as though his
pelng elected President next tinoo
were already settled. and bears him
sell throughout as a peculiarly repcl-
liant combination Of demagogue and
dictator.
THE thing goes beyond a dispIav
or bad taste. AS such it is shocking
but it is BESIDES an exhibition Of
moral impudence. I will mako tbo
corporations come to time, shouted
Roosevelt to the mob. But did he
not really mean that he would mako
! them come down with the cash 70
eject him, AS he did before? For y
man with Mr. Roosevelt's proved rec.
ora 1t is simply disgusting humbup
ior MN TO rant about the corpora
tlons, upon whose treasures he favn.
ed when he was President and want
ed their money for his campaien
Does he think that nobody has a
memory which goes back to the life
insurance Investigations, and that
everybody has forgotten the $50
600 taken from widows and orphans
and added to Theodore Roosevelts
political corruption fund?
Did he not take a big check fro,,
the Beef Trust and glad to get it?
And now he is going to make the
corporations come to time.
Talks Big; Acts Mean"
One can have respect for a sim
cere radical, for an honest fanatic.
for an agitator or leveler who he.
lieves that he is doing Gods will. but
1t is hard to be patient with a man
who talks big but acts mean. whose
eye is always to the main chance no.
lltlcally and who lets no friendship.
no generosity, no principle, no moral
scruple stand for a moment between
himself and the goal upon which he
has set his overmastering ambition.
such wild and whirling words as
Mr. Roosevelt uttered yesterday are
curse to public life. They arouse
passion without directing it. They
give no one a clear idea Of what the
speaker meant, except that he sought
to lnfiame the crowd and make mis-
chief. He Eliminates against crook
ed men. He is going to 'cinch' the
crooks. Why not be specific? Whom
does he mean? Even Mr.. Roose-
Welt cannot intend us to understand
that he will be detective, police, mag
lstrate, jury jailer, all in one, and
VIII get after every burglar and
swindler in the land. No: his crooks
are political crooks. What he wants
the crowd to understand is that he
is with them in their present wrath
against men who go into politics 70
make money, or who advance by DO
litical corruption, or who are noto-
rious and unscrupulous machine
politicians.
"TOadied To Platt; Praised Quay"
Yet this cahmpion Of purity, this
roarer for political virture is the man
who was for years. when in public
llfe hand in glove with the worst
political corruptionists of his day:
who toadied to Platt. who praised
Quay who paid court to Hanna.
Under him as President, Aldrich
rose to the height of his power. all
ways on good terms with Roosevelt.
1T was Roosevelt, who, in 1905.
wrote an open letter urging the re-
election of Speaker Cannon. against
whom mutterings had then begun
to rise; it was Roosevelt who asked
hartman to come to the White
House secretely, who took his money
to buy votes in New York. and who
afterward wrote to My Dear Sher-
man'-yes. the same Sherman-re-
Wiling the capitalist to whom he had
previously written, saying. You and
| are practical men,
III Roosevelt is the great cincher
Oh CROOKS, why didn't he cinch them
when he was shaking hands with
them?
"Indeccnt And Dangerous"
1T is no pleasant duty to say
these things of Mr.. Roose, cit. We
had hoped that time and reflection
had sobered him and that his West
ern speeches would show him capable
OF taking an elevated political lead
ership. But whatever he may do i'm
his set addresses, it is plain that hG
means en- route to stir the popular
heart by appeals in his very worst
vein. His leaping back into his old
role is both indecent and DANGEROUS.
1T is indecent because. in utter
disregard of all propIiety and per-
SOnal and political fair DIaV he ruSh