Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1912-03-05
Perfectly True That He Said He
Would Not Be Candidate But
Never Said He Would Not
Accept Nomination.
YIELDED ONLY IN FACE
OF POPULAR DEMAND
Colonel Explains That He Did
Everything Possible to Pre-
vent His Friends Starting
Third Term Boom.
rBy Morning journal Special Leased Wire.l

nv Morning journal Special Leased Wire.l
oyster Bay, n. Y, March 4.-Colo-
ne, Roosevelt said today it was per-
fectly true that he had said he would
not be a candidate in 1912.
He had made that statement to
many persons, he said. but had not
declared that he would not accept the
nomination il it were rendered to him.
He drew distinction between becon-
ing candidate and being willing 10
accept the nomination.
The colonel made il plain that ne
saw nothing in the NanNalkenherg
letter, in which he said he would not
be a candidate in 1912 to conflict
with his recent statement that he
become the nominee of the party u
his party asked 1t.
Colonel Roosevelt's position in the
matter is set forth in statement
which he gave out today explaining
the circumstances that induced him 10
write to Mr.. Vanvalkenberg. This Is
the statement:
AT that time persistent efforts hed
been made from Washington to con
vince the progressives that | was real
occasion the statement was made with
the greatest explicitness. ] promptly
denied the statement and was assured
on the one hand that it had been m
spred from the White House and as
sured on the ather hand that IT mad
not been, but on the contrary, was
made purely on the initiative of the
Associated Press.
'erhe Associated Press people as-
sured me that they were not respon-
sible for the false statements and as
IL will be seen by reference to the let
ter itself, MIR. Noyes was quoted as
having gotten the information from
Independent sources. / do not know
who gave out this letter, but ] am
certain that it was not Mr.. VanFal-
kenberg for ! know him to be an hon
orable man.
ITO all who were at that time writ
ing to me to he a candidate | answered
that [ would not be- To all who
asked whether / would accept if nom
mated / answered yes, if ] knew
them sufficiently well to be sure that
they would understand me; other
wise I said simply that ! would cross
that bridge when ] came to it, ana
in most cases If the man was at all
a close personal friend, told him that
! counted on his doing everything
possible to prevent any movement
looking to my nomination.
1T was not until the last three orl
four months that / was finally Obliged
to come to the conclusion that there
was a real demand among the peo-
pie as a whole for my nomination.
which did not come in any way fron
any personal friends of mine, and W's
neither inspired nor engineered Ivy
them
When | became convinced that
this popular demand was real anc
was considerable and when the gov
ernors of seven states Increased ny
this time to ten. may mention mel
dentally, asked me whether | wouid
accept if nominated, answered yes.
/ added an expression of my WISH
that wherever possible open prefer
ential presidential primaries night be
held so as to find out who the re-
publican voters wished to have noni-
mated.
II the people do not wish me 10
serve, most certainly I do not wish
to serve. If they do desire me TO ua-
dertake in their interest great task
| shall do so and shall perform 4
with whatever courage and ability
POSSESS. Whether there will be such
an expression of the popular viii
cannot say, as where there are no
preferential primaries and II unfortu-
hately seems too often To be the case
mat the effort of the political leaders
is not TO give expression to the Dopular
WI, but to thwart IL in every way pos
sible.r
They say I'm fighting the courts,
SAID Colonel Roosevelt. as he took his
seat today as a juror in the county
court house at Mineola. "Ill show
'hem my obedience to the courts.
Colonel Roosevelt did 1t by refus-
ing to claim exemption from jury SER
wee although the law would have per-
mitted IL.
The Colonel spent the afternoon
nietating letters. His only guest was
T. r. Harris. Of Champaign. Illinois.
president of the Illinois Bankers As
1,''laion- Mr.. Harris comes from the
uistrict Of Congressman Mckinley.
manager Of the Taft campaign The
: Colonel said he mad received word |
ron Oklahoma that So of the - '
counties Of the state were for him
nd that the delegates to be elected q
~ me state convention next week !
-ouid surely i,e instructed for Rocse- (