Imperial Valley press., 1912-10-31
ROOSEVELT ONLY ONCE
BEFORE A CANDIDATE FOR
THE PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE
by G. Il. CONNOLLY
!Author of big business and the Bench" etc.I

A would-be assassin has declared
Theodore Roosevelts body because no
man who attempted to secure a third
term as president was fit to live. His
logic was as Intellectual as his bullet.
But he has done one good thing. He
has emphasized for this campaign the
question whether Colonel Roosevelt ac-
and if so whether he is waging war
against the best traditions of the coun-
try. Colonel Roosevelt succeeded to
the presidency on the death of Pres
ident Mckinley and for practically all
of the three succeeding years he car
ried on his administration with cab
met selected by Mr.. Mckinley and with
out the preparation for his office or
its policies which every successful can
didate between November and March
gives to so important a task. He was
never, before this year, a candidate for
the presidency but once, and then lie
was elected by the largest majority
ever given a presidential candidate. He
left the office the most popular citizen
Of the country.
No sane man would contend that
Colonel Roosevelt could not have been
renominated in 1908, and most likely
reelected But he refused. Waving
aside every bubble as to whether he
had actually come within the tradition
against a third term-counting his firSt
three wears in office as against him
Roosevelt refused to run. Had he been
personally ambitious, he would have
accepted the denomination. When the
tradition against third term became
because he was tired of the presidency
an unwritten law of the country, the
president was elected by machinery
which he could control more effectively
than any political party has controlled
political machinery in the last fifty
years. It was in fact before the days
of we'll defined political parties The
The question was threShed out in tins
constitutional convention, and nowhere
in the constitution is there a prohi
bition against a third term. Our con-
that the failure to exclude it was prac-
llCdIlN d utEIdIdllOu, IL not III IdNOT DI
it, at least not against.
Washington did not attach great I'M
portance to the question. He refused
third term merely because he was too
old, and sought the rest which he had
so well earned. Professor McMaster,
the historian, says: No scruples about
a third term troubled him in the least
He went back to private life solely
and because the state of the country
did not demand a further sacrifice of
his comfort" Thomas Jefferson in
sisted that there were contingencies in
which he might accept a third term.
The fight against Grant was factional
fight between certain wings of the Re
publican party, and the third term wa
used as an argume ent against Grant 20
defeat Conkling. The New York World
favored Cleveland for a third term;
so did the New York Evening Post;
so did the New York Times.
We once had a tradition in this coun-
try stronger than that against a third
term. It was against entangling for
cign alliances and the requirement o'
colonial possessions. Washington EN- :
phatically declared against this. Yet
the course of events compelled us to
acquire Cuba, Porto Rico and the Phil
ippines and the supreme court of the
United States held, as Mr.. Dooley 50