Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1912-06-21
SAYS 7. R. IS BEING
/ GIVEN OWN DOSE
-
Alfred Henry Lewis Points Out
1908 Nomination of
Taft.
RECALLS HOW COLONEL
FORCED HIS SELECTION
Believes That in Last Analysis
Rough Rider Will Meet
With Defeat.
BY ALFRED HENRY LEWIS.

CHICAGO, June 21.-Roosevelt will
have no pleasant time before the peo'
pie. His couch win be no bed OF
roses. True, he was robbed in raw
est fashion. In the name of Taft,
and with Taft's connivanee and on.
sent, the pockets of the Roosevelt
& chances were picked of roundly eighty
delegates. Had Roosevelt received a
square deal, he would have been
named. He did not get a square deal
and now he will appeal TO the peo-
pie.
But the Roosevelt trouble-to-come
lies here: He has been handed his
own medicine, the medicine he gave
the party and the captains of the
party when, foul years ago he n
ed them Taft with the threat, show
ing all his teeth, IF o don't take
him, you will take me-" They took
him under stress of that menace and
now they have used him" as a
weapon, fat, but in formidable hands
sufficiently deadly, to destroy Roose-
welt himself.
Forced Taft IN Party"
4 When the circumstances come, all
to be considered, the popular SYM
pathy for Roosevelt will not, in the
pillows of its expression, "run"-as
say the sailors-"mountain high" As
President Roosevelt forgot his duty.
forgot the eason of his White
House elevation to force Taft upon
the party and the people. Nobody
Z except Roosevelt wanted Taft. But.
employing every political resource of
the White House, exercising in the
fullest sweep every quality and pow
er which marks the boss, Roosevelt
forced Taft down the party throat.
4 Roosevelt liked Taft for the very
qualities which most untitled him for
the post OF President. The man
whom Roosevelt likes least Is the
man who disagrees with him most.
Argument, however sincerely honest,
frets him. Whatever the question at
bay, Roosevelt, is sure he is right;
and he never fails to resent argu-
ment or opposition as a merest waste
of his time. Root, Metcalf and others
In his Cabinet argued with Roosevelt
and offended him by positive. even If
polite, opposition.
. Why Roosevelt Exalted Him.
Taft never did. Sassy, fatty indo-
lent, inert, resolute only to do moth
ing he could not do sitting down, Taft
openly agreed with Roosevelt Or was
silent in a soothing way. And for
this genius, for acquiescence, Roose-
welt loved and exalted him.
Taft mirrored back to Roosevelt
every feature of his so-called policies
Roosevelt could see his face in Taft
and believed he had found his alter
ego when he had but discovered his
W reflection. It vas the most natu-
raj thing in the world that. once Taft
was elected, the Cannons and the Al
driches and the Roots should steal
him away from Roosevelt. Taft, shall
low and shiny, was born a looking
glass man. Roosevelt was delighted
with those looking glass ~characteris-
tics.
Roosevelt should have remembered
that looking glasses are not cele-
brated for their loyalty, and once he
was off chasing lions, or lions were
chasing him, some other face would
be reflected.
Roosevelt a Human Steamboat.
Roosevelt should bear in mind that
Taft, in his fat outstretchfngs for
prey, never misled him; Taft made
no false pretenses. Roosevelt, full Of
force, vibrant with energy, Is a hui
man steamboat and meant to stem
AhA ..-AFaA 80 IA- IN.,w, NH
like Taft a only sail down stream.
Roosevelt, had he taken a sober look,
could have seen all this. Taft never
told him that he. Taft. was a steam
boat, never blew deceptive whistles,
never rang delusive bells. Broad of
beam and barge-like. he lay floating
on his expeotant ropes, waiting for
Roosevelt to throw him off and tow
him to a Presidency. And Roosevelt
did.
That Taft has disappointed Roose-
welt is not so much Taft's as Roose-
velt's fault. To be what Roosevelt
thought he should be Taft must have
passed nine-tenths of his life on his
feet. Nature intended no such ac-
tivities in the Taftian case. Nature
QoUi ccu lila IhLI SlOuAu bo always
looking for a chair-should, In truth,
put in nine-tenths of his life sitting
down. Upon these points of a walrus-
like lethargy and gritty disinclina-
ton to travel very far from his own
little cake of. comfortable ice Taft in
no wise fooled Roosevelt. Roosevelt
was fooled, truly; but in that blind
regard he pulled the wool over his
own eyes and fooled himself. For all
of which reasons and for those others
heretofore declared no one will sit up
nights in peculiar pity over Roose-
welt and what has happened to him.
AS Defiant AZ Ever.
Not that he goes about asking pity
not that he is seeking pity. His crest
. as high, his y as defiant, HIS