Williams news., 1912-10-26
COLONEL ROOSEVELT
 ISSUES A STATEMENT


 Colonel Roosevelt's attempted as- sassination, so far as he is concerned.
 The following statement was is sued by Col. Roosevelt last night at Mercy hospital in answer to what MT. Bryan said yesterday in his speech at Franklin, Ind:
 "I wish to express my cordial agreement with the manly and l proper statement of Mir. Bryan at Franklin, Ind, when arguing for continuance of a discussion of the issues at stake in the contest, he said:
 '' 'The issue of this campaign should not be determined by the act of an assassin. Neither Colonel nor his friends could ask that the discussion be turned away from the principles involved. If he is elect ed president it should be because of what he has done in the past and what he proposes to do hereafter
 'I wish to point out, however, that neither I nor my friends have asked that the discussion be turned from the principles involved. On the contrary, we emphatically de- mand that the discussion be carried on precisely as if I had not been shot l will be sorry if Mir. Wilson does not keep on the stump, and l feel that he owes it to himself and the American people to continue on the stump.
 1T wish to make one more com ment on MT. Bryan's statement. It is of course perfectly true that in voting for me or against me, con- sideration must be paid to what 1
 have done in the past and to what l propose to do, but it seems to me far more important that considera-
 ton should be paid to what the Pro-
 gressive party proposes to do.
 ''I cannot too strongly emphasize the fact upon which we progressives
 insist that the welfare of any one
 man in this fight is wholly imma-
 terial compared to the great and l fundamental issues involved in the : triumph of the principles for which our cause stands. If I had been r killed the fight would have gone on : exactly the same.
 "Governor Johnson, Senator Bev-
 eridge, MT. Strauss, Senator Bris- tow, Mrs. Jane Addams, Clifford v Pinchot, Judge Ben Lindsey, Ray v mond Robbins, Mir. Pendergast and t the hundreds of other men now on f the stump are preaching the doe ] trines that I have been preaching
 and stand for and represent just the
 same cause. They would have con- s tined the fight in exactly the same . way if 1 had been killed and they ars continuing it in just the same \ way, now that I am for the moment laid up.
 ''So far as my opponents are concerned, whatever could with
 truth and propriety have been said
 against me, and my cause, before : was shot, can with equal truth and equal propriety be said against me, it can be so said; and the things that cannot be said are merely the things that ought not to have beer C said before. This is not contest = about any man; it is contest con test concerning principles.
 !. eff my broken rib heals fast
 enough to relieve my breathing, e shall hope to be able to make ont l or two speeches in this campaign ! in any event, if l am not able to make them the men I have men toned above and the hundreds likt s them will be stating our cause righ S to the end of the campaign and e trust our opponents will be stating
 their case also.
 V (Signed) THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Il THE questions which will be sub