Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1912-10-15
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may Shakespeare
AMERICA SAVED FROM BITTER SHAME

[ man who fired a revolver at the colonel in an
attempt to cut short the career of the third-term
candidate is the man who will elect him.
Prone to sympathy, quick to sense the dra-
matte and to appreciate it vocifcrOusly, the
American people will do more than sympathize
with Roosevelt and applaud his iron nerve in
finishing his speech before he would yield to eX
animation by physicians. Thousands upon thou
sands of them will vote for him.
1t was the bullet of an assassin that put
Roosevelt in the presidential chair. 1t may we'll
be another assassin and another bullet that will
place him there again.
The first reports received in Honolulu we're
Indefinite as to the extent of the cOlOnePs in
juries. The next reports were that his injuries
were slight. Early this morning the Associated
Press cabled this paper that the wound is much
more serious than first supposed, though the bull
let apparently did not strike any vital organ.
The rough-riding colonel, however, must aban-
don his campaign
In the opinion of this paper, he will not lose
any votes by his inability to speak His recent
tour, the longest ever undertaken by any presi-
Dental candidate has been far from popular
success. Enormous crowds greeted him every
where, but in many cities he left dissatisfaction
behind him, particularly among local leaders Of
the Bull Moose movement. His speeches during
the past month have been particularly denun-
ciatory. His language has often been SO vim
dctiye and so ill-chosen as to be unseemly in any
presidential candidate. Some of the cOlonePs
best newspaper friends have acknowledged that
he was injuring his own cause
But the colonel on a campaign platform ram
page and the colonel suffering from the bullet
of erazed political crank are entirely different
persons There is no denying that Roosevelt
was near to death, or that he bore himself with
extraordinary courage,-the kind of daredevil,
leonine courage that appeals irresistibly to the
melodramatic instinct so strongly implanted in
American breasts He is again the hero Of San
Juan; again the idol of his picturesque cow
boys; again the man of action. And it is that
kind of Roosevelt who first won the American
people to him as no other president ever won
his people. +kE.
Roosevelt met an extraordinary situation,
and with his marvellous aptitude for doing the
dramatic thing, for saying the pungent sentence,
the sentence with the punch, he turned
the situation to extraordinary account. This
mornings messages brought the news that when
photographers flashlight exploded in his face
he exclaimed, "Gosh! Shot again. and this
humorous comment as he walked into a hospital
with bullet in his shoulder will be seen in a
thousand headlines will figure in a thousand
campaign speeches.
1t is peculiar and yet characteristic of Amer
ica's regard for Roosevelt that as soon as it was
learned his injuries were only slight and that
he had insisted on finishing his speech, many
people were ready to declare the entire incident
"framed up. If so, it would be the greatest
press agent ''stunt" ever attempted. Of course
this idea is far-fetched, almost unthinkable In
Honolulu the idea is freely expressed, but prob
ably not really believed. But how typical it is
of our estimation of Roosevelt!
. Beyond all politics and above all partisan
ship, the American people should greatly rejoice
that another has not been added to the list OF
our martyred presidents. John Schrenk mar
Powly missed claim to the red nOtOriety of CZOl
poSz He seems to have been of the anarchiSti(
type of the man who assassinated Mckinley
Yet this is not a country of anarchists; not
country of unbalanced mentalities. 1t is coun
try where law is revered; where administrators
of the law are respected Milwaukee, it is true
has been for some years hOtbed of socialism
Int socialism is not anarchy. Only, it too Otter
hannens that weak minds grow unbalanced from
long brOOding over vague theories of govern
mont: respect for all law is lost; and from thu
chaos of unbrided thought there is evolved
wild resentment against society, and an obses
s;on that the makers of law and those who exc
cute II are men to be despised, hated. condemned
~. 4--oo. Of individual If is hut q StpI