Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1912-08-29
Roos eyelt Hit Hard.

MOOSeVelL nit Qar0.
Subject of Bitter Editorial BY Col.
Watterson-" His Candidacy is an
Assault Upon Human Credu.ity =
Under he caption, 1.-THE Sin of the
G. o. P. tIas Found 1t Ous at Last. =
Mr. Watterson says in the Courier
Journal:
More and more of it. Yet nothing
new. The same old story. Who made
the steam roller? Theodore Roosevelt.
What for? His own ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.
Who got possession of it? William
Howard Taft. To what end? His re-
nomination
Money. Oceans of money. The
criminal who buys immunity from the
police, the corporation that walks hand
IN hand with the Government has as
little, need to feel the sense of value
Eof money as to consider the means by
which it is amassed. Come easy, 70
easy IT'S only matter of 80 percent
here upon a tariff duty. 1000 percent
there in treasury grab. What cares
the Steel Trust for trif1ing million o.
two millions. to the campaign fund of q
blind party and grateful President?
What cares the Harvester Trust? What
is it to the Standard Oil?
Nothing Just twist of the wrist,
turn Of the screw. heaps of money
blood money, tainted money, other
peoples money poured out upon the
affairs of corruption as rich libation
to The gods Of gajnfuI pillage, The
Moose choir ranging round the while
and screaming we stand at Arranged
don and we battle for the Lord.
The immediate case in point relates
to Roosevelt rather than to Taft Taft, S
turn may come later When thieves
fall out there is no telling what may
happen. There is precious little dan
ger in Taft. There is not much. if any,
danger in Roosevelt, But there are
moral obligations. The need is that
the mask must be torn from fraud and
crime; that Psalm singing shall be di-
vorced from burglary; that hypocrisy
and lying shall be driven from the
cover of the sanctuary and the broad
highways.
Taft is not yet on trial. It can
hardly be said that he is in it. The
dirty spot lies beneath the feet of
Theodore Roosevelt. He 1t is that
stands between the people and the
light, that must be uncovered, that
must be brought to book, that for the
public good must be whipped as with
scorpions
"How closely the Courier-Journal
hit the bulls eye in truth in 1908 when,
instantly upon the nomination of Taft
by the Republican National convention,
it said They have made a man of
straw, and placed him upon a platform
of imposture
We have now, however, to concern
ourselves with Theodore Roosevelt.
More than ever the Courier Journal is
sure of his insanity. If he is not Of
disordered mind, the record would show
him a monster of depravity, and turpi-
tude. That we cannot believe him to
be.
His very candidacy is an assault
upon human credulity. That he has
any following would be incredible, if
we did not know of what fiimsy and
yenal stuff politics and partyism are
made. Another Presidential term for
Theodore Roosevelt would be nothing
less than the proclamation of the end
of the Republic and the beginning of
a dictatorship.
As the Courier-J Journal has said So
often, the need Of 1912 would be the
'exigency of 1916 Every absoiutist
from julius Caesar to Louis Napoleon
has so-arrived. All the world would
SO construe it. Europe indeed expects
it. Nor is there q reigning house which
would not rejoice over what it would
hold as the beginning of the end of
democracy. y
All that the disclosures of the hour
make as clear as MONDAY. ard that
seem 50 shocking, were long ago fore
tokened by the career of this fantastic
mailman. The wonder is that the
story could impose itself upon thinking
people. Men ike Perkins, archangel
both Of the Roosevelt campaign and
the great corporation behind it, merely
see in him an instrument. Sane, Or
insane. he is to their hand. But among
the millions of disinterested Americans
who can read it without a SENSE of the