The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-06-05
FITzGERALD'S MISFORTUNE.

ElIGGEhAlyD' > MlSIOhI
Something good deal worse than
being enrolled in the Ananias Club has
happened to Representative John e
Fitzgerald Of the Seventh District oi
New York Col Roosevelt has tallen
afou Of him in his most desperate
mood. He says of Fitzgerald that Just
as machinery can be expressed III terms
Of horsepower, so some intellccts can
he expressed in terms Of guinea'pig
power. That kind Of accusation
lthe kind made by Fitzgerald can
only be needed by men with brains of
about three guinea-pig power, And
Col. Roosevelt continued "Mr. F1tzger-
aid IS accusation, OF the implied acou-
satiou, is too preposterous to need any
serious discussion
What is it then, that has brought
Representative Fitzgerald into such
deep contempt as tbis7 Merely the
bringing forward by Mr.. Fitzgerald Of
a memorandum which Roosevelt made
while he was President in regard to
the White House. That memorandum
reads as follows:
Memorandum in regard to the White
House.
The White House was planned and
constructed as residence. The office
features OF the house are maintained at
the expense OF space which should be al
the disposal of the Presidents family.
and at the same time the public business
with serious inconvenience and under un-
healthful conditions for the secretaries
and clerks
The problem OF the location of a per-
manent building for the office OF the
President involves many considerations
as TO the amount OF the accommodation
needed and the scope and variety of the
functions to be carried on In such a
building Provision for temporary quar-
ters for the executive offices is com
paratlVely simple matter. y building
of brick, one story nigh. ana CONTAINING
from 80 TO IS per cent more room than
the offices now occupied. can be CON
structed In the grounds of The White
House opposite The entrance of the navy
department. The building would take
the place now occupied by brick wall
when scre ems a number Of hothouscs
and forcing beds for plants. functions
which may we'll be provided elsewhere
In connection with the propaSating gar
den.
The word Temporary in the above
was underscored by President Roose-
welt. who wrote on the margin oppo-
site TO it the words Hto be permanent
during my lifetime! T. r." This aP-
pears in Roosevelt's S handwriting, and
the word "my'' was heavily under
scored. This memorandum, it appears,
was buried in the files of the House
Committee on Appropriations for ten
wears, The occasion for the memoran-
DUN arose in 1902. when the altera-
tions in the White House were under
consideration. President Roosevelt
took verv active part in debating
what the alterations should be; and.
Of course. there were disagreements:
there are always disagreements when
Roosevelt is party to anything, un-
less every one else gives way and lets
him carry out his own ideas and pur-
poses. But it seems there was an
architect who drew up a memorandum
on the subject, and the House Commit
tee also had its own opinion about the
matter.
Representative Fitzgerald has recent
" come across this paper aud has made
it public with the comment that even
then it appears that Roosevelt was con
sidering a life tenure in the Presiden-
al.ofiice. 1t appears suggestively that
Roosevelt really had the idea germInat-
ing in his mind at that time that he
was to be President for life. In no
other way, as Mr Fitzgerald says,
could the idea conveyed by the words
have originated. Yet now Roosevelt
considers the inference drawn by Mr..
Fitzgerald to be wholly perverse and
not worth discussion. But in view of
Roosevelt 5 complete surrender not only
TO the third term idea but to the idea
of an unlimited number of terms, the
memorandum as construed by Mr.. titz-
gerald does not seem so absurd AS 1T
otherwise might, or as it would if the
same had been written by somebody
else. The fact that Roosevelt treats
Fitzgerald and his construction Of the
language with such contumely and heat
Indicates that he really considers the
matter Of more importance and more
of gauge Of his own actual feeling
than he would otherwise be disposed
TO admit