Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1911-05-18
ROOSEVELT AND LABOR.


Times building by the use OF dynamite.
says:
state the conviction of the Out
look IN expressing its hearty disap-
probation OF the conduct of those
laoor leaders who, without waiting
70 Know anything of the facts of
the case, have at once flown public
ly to the defense of the ALLEGED dv-
namiters whom Mr.. Burns has now
arrested and who talk about the ar
rest as being part of q conspiracy
against labor unions. No worse
service can be rendered bv labor
union leaders to the cause of union
ism than that which thew render
when they seek to identify it with
the cause of any man guilty of a
murderous attack of this nature"
The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot thinks it
finds in this castigation of labor leaders
very strong Indication of the sincerity
OF Mr.. Roosevelt's statement that he is
not after presidential nomination. at
is not so very long ago that he handled
these same leaders very gently with kid
gloves, consulted them, dined them at
the White House and acquired union
card for himself" says our Norfolk
neighbor. persons who observed his
career as politician with a view to
criticism, made no bones Of saying that
he was trucking to the labor vote.
certain 1t was that he showed no little
diplomacy in taking to his strenuous
bosom John Mitchell, who was then the
idol Of the hour in the world of labor. &"
Mr.. Roosevelt has tried to be all
things to all men at various times. and
he has come about as near getting away
with 1t as any man possibly could. But
II his criticism of labor leaders is to be
accepted as indicating his attitude to-
ward the presidency, he has not been a
candidate for some years. His criti-
cism of labor leaders was equally severe
when Meyer, Haywood and Pettibone
were on trial in Idaho for the assassin
alton of Governor Steunenberg, and he
denounced the three men as undesirable
citizens during the progress of the trial.
Also, II we remember correctly, he was
at the bottom of some labor trouble in
the government printing office while he
was president. Had he yielded to the
opportunities of his fool friends to be-
come a candidate for a third term in
1908, it is very doubtful if he could have
commanded the support Of the labor
leaders. Bristol Herald Courier.
Theodore Roosevelt would not, even
If he had been a candidate for the presi-
dency, have modified the expression of
his views on any subject of current in
terest, as to what he thought was right,
and he has been more often right on all
great questions that have come I'D for
consideration since he has been promi-
nent in the political field, than any man
who ever held the presidential chair.
Theodore Roosevelt may and is, per-
haps, occasionally wrong, but the pub
lie is never misled as to his position.
Frankly and without fear he expresses
his convictions on questions of public
policy, and while it may appear to the
Herald-C Courier that Roosevelt ''has
tried to be ali things to all men," it is
only because he has always taken an
advanced position and other men have
come up to his standard.
Theodore Roosevelt has, in a way,
been fortunate in his environments.
With the advantages of city birth and
education, he went in early life to the
West, where one may see the sun rise
over half a continent. A mans mental
horizon expands with his visuIar one,
and man from the plains will have a
more comprehensive view of life in its
entirity than will the inhabitant of the
hills.
Another factor in the development of
the character of Roosevelt is that in his
day in the Dakotas the only law there
was what q man carried on his hip.
Barbarous? Mol Barring sporadic out
breaks that will always be known where
liquor is drank, there were never more
peaceful or law-abiding communities
than where it was well known that
swift and sure vengeance would follow
an infraction of the unwritten laws of
camp or range. Twas here that our
former President learned to "speak
softly and carry big stick"
A word about the Herald Courier's
statement t tat Roosevelt probably
could not have carried the labor vote in
1908. Guessing is poor business, at the
best, but 'twould be our guess that he
would have gotten a majority of the
abor vote. The laboring man is, first
If al, a man, no better and no worse
han the great average of American