The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-08-27
WOODRUFF WHITE FEATHER.

Woodruff, chairman of the State Re-
publican Committee of New York, dis
tinctly shows the white feather Roose-
Welt belligerent, swinging the big stick,
makes public outcry as to what he is
going to do to the sold guard " of New
York, whom he appears to include
among the rascals IN Office and party
position who must be eliminated from
the Republican control, and from pub.
lie life. Woodruff meekly replies that
he also wants TO eliminate the crooks,
ignoring the Roosevelt suggestion that
Woodruff himself is the chief Of these
crooks. Woodruff is rather tame, and
his words are in marked contrast to
the bold and energetic stand taken by
Mr.. Barnes of Albany for the sold
guard. -
Woodruff protests that there was no
personal slight to Mr.. Roosevelt in.
tended by the committee when it re.
fused the application of Roosevelt S
friends TO make him temporary chair
man of the State convention. This is
a mere shifty evasion. OF course there
was slight intended, and for few
days the cold guard gloried in its
work. Vice President Sherman, who
was selected for the temporary chair
manship, visited President Taft and
came away chuckling with glee. But
Woodruff tamely protests that the com
mittee in selecting Vice President
Sherman merely followed precedent,
which, of course, may be true; there are
precedents for almost anything in a
long list OF party actions. The protest.
alton. however, that nothing personal
against Roosevelt was intended is so
weak dodge that Woodruff Is the one
who will suffer from it, in the public
contempt.
The chief significance OF Woodruff S
statement, however, will to many lie
in the fact that he says President
Taft was in no way involved in the
matter of shelving Roosevelt and sc.
lecting Vice-President Sherman; that
the members Of the State committee
kept entirely within their authority,
of them consulted with President Taft
about it. However, sin view of the
apparent affront Of Mr.. Roosevelt
caused by the action of Mr., Grlscom' -
Mr.. Woodruff "felt called upon as
chairman of the committee to send an
explanatory letter to the former Pres.
ident.' This afterthought, however,
cannot possibly do away with the i'm.
preston which was sedulously being
inculcated in the public mind that Pres.
ident Taft Joined with the committee in
putting this slight upon Mr.. Roosevelt;
and if it had not been for MI Roose.
welt S mastery political tactics and his
energy in seizing the occasion when he
could turn it most to his advantage,
there is no doubt but that President
Taft would have been personally and
permanently involved in that slight.
President Taft himself seemed inclined
to allow 1T to go that way, but it was
Roosevelt who stirred the thing up and
who compelled Taft to come to the
front and renounce all connection with
it.
We do not wonder that Mr.. Woodruff
is beginning TO weaken in view Of the
brilliant victory scored by Mr.. Roose-
welt against the New York machine of
which Mr.. Woodruff is the chief and
Those who run that machine
are small potatoes politically as com
pared with Mr. Roosevelt. This is
abundantly evident in the outcome Of
the skirmish in which he came out so
completely victorious. President Taft,
1t is evident, was the prize in the game
that was played. The problem was to
catch him and to get his influence. The
standpat bosses in New York thought
they had the matter all fixed, but they
left out of the account Mr.. Roosevelt s
aggressive energy and his disposition
to strike quick and hard; and so he
has won the big prize In contention,
and we believe that he will also win in
the Republican State convention in
New York and will put the old gang
completely out Of business, for the pres
ent at least.