The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1912-06-06
Talks of Lack of'Fidelity" But
Fails. TO File Bill of
Particulars
eLIFE TENURE" BIG ISSUE
IF ROOSEVELT RUNS
Says Republicans, "Debauched
and Butchered," Should Prove
Easy Prey; Praises Clark
BY JAMEg scHERuERHORN.


.Marse Henry" Watterson, who elo'
quently presented to the Detroit Board
OF Commerce, Tuesday, Kentucky
bill for the blood OF her patriots shed
at the battle OF Lake Erie ard &c
manded payment in the form of IN
imperishabie memorial at Put.in-Bay
was weary and unreplying whsE tbs
newspaper boys besought him In tbs
Pontchartrain for something On the
political situation.
II have. a night on the cars behind
me and a night on the cars ahead oil
nae. and you must remember AIN
CARRYING around something ike II
years." the famous Kentuckian ex
planned TO the reporters. If my own
composing room. should clamor for
COPY right now, il would find me just
as unresponsive as you do. Further
more and This has always been the
infiexible Watterson attitude toward
interviewsrI'ma accountable fcr what
| say politically and | wouldn't let
anything 20 without reflection and re
vision, and I'm too weary for that.
1 called on Col watterson few
hours after half a thousand Detroiters
had given him heartening greeting
at the Board of Commerce luncheon,
The ''star-eyed goddess OF reform,
SO erect, militant and flashing in ac-
ton, was restfuIiy recumbent right
then, propped on pillows, so that the
light of the western sun could Hum
inc the pages of the latest fiction he
was enjoying. (The Watterson weari-
ness doesn't mean mental stagcation,
that's certain.)
Reminds Colonel of Parallel.
4 reminded him OF the parallel be-
tween his present visit. as a member
of the Perry Memorial commission
and his coming TO Detroit in the sum-
mer OF 1895. His trenchant quill. dip
ped in aqua forts, was as conspicu-
ously In the ring against a third term
for Grover Cleveland as IL is against
a FIRST term for Gov. Wilson at the
present time. The paper | was serv-
ing at that time as reporter didn't
love Cleveland, any more than Wat
terson did, either for the enemies he
had or hadn't made, and was sent
over TO start, II possible, a flow OF
rhetorical fiagellation after one or two
other interviewers had come back
ernptyhander
met the colonel at the desk in the
Russell house inst as he was coming
down from his room for a drive, and
while the carriage waited he gave lie
a column SO scintiliating with the
Watterson mental processes AMI pic
tuFesqueness % expression that Man
sging Editor Pat Baker-always
living solely. for the next edition of
The News--received It into his eager
hands with the cry, That's a
cuckoo"
Among other characteristic deliver
auces that stuck in my memory was
this sweeping specimen Of the
coionel's cocksureness: IF by any
concentration Of miracles Mr.. Cleve-
land should be nominated for the
third time he would not carry a sim
gle civic precinct in the Unitel
States"
repeated this TO the silver.locked
survivor of a thousand political sieges
as he lay there before me in undress
uniform, and he seemed 10 enjoy the
experience of being caught with the
interviewing goods on his person.
Then / asked him why he did not
love Gov. Wilson I'M the same old way
4
the New York World, with whose Ia
mented editor he had sailed the blue
waters of the Mediterranean on The
last trip Mr.. Pulitzer made in his
yacht berry," had been impe!ed to
declare for the governor as the only
Democrat that could carry the east
and be elected
True to Environment.
L.. Il
ment," Col. Watterson replied. II is
of the east, easterly II can see moth.
ing west of the Alleghanies or south
OF the Blue Ridge If, upon the ire
mendous issue oyerhanging the con-
hict before us, but one man can be
relied on surely TO beat Theodore
Roosevelt, we are beaten already and
lady beaten. That Is not my look
ahead.
The World is carried away by a
kind OF Intellectual hysteria uron a
series OF assumptions it writes with
power and effect, taking no account Of
its destination. Like a locomotive go
ing at topmost speed over single
rail, II Is blinded by the fare Of it's
own headlight and recks not the dan
gers OF the track beyond.
In Baltimore the Democrats are
not only TO nominate a candidate for
president. They are not only &c put
q ticket in the field. They are actual
ly to make a president, because. to
leave Roosevelt and Rooseyeltism out
OF the question, no party. debauched
and butchered as the Republicans, can
hope to prevail in a national election
II is next TO certain that there will he
two Republican claimants, as twice
there have been two Democratic
claimants, making deadly breach.
But IL there should be but one, and
that one Theodore Roosevelt. II will
not be possible--the World itself has
made that sufficiently plajn--to carry
the country on the issue of life ten
ure. which will dwarf all other issues
Hence. In Baltimore, the Demo
Gratis must consider not alone the
availability OF the candidate. they
nominate, but the character of the
man they are to put in the White
House."
,But the World contends. Colonel
Wafterson," said the interviewer,
"that Gov. Wilson answers fully all
high requirements as to character,
and the country has still TO be con
WINGED that there 10 any serious naw
m his moral fibre, notwithstanding
you have reversed your attitude to-
ward nina reversal. by the way.
ne tuuptry has never been fully ID
l'entened upon"