The daily sentinel., 1912-02-14
MR.. ROOSEVELT CANNOT ENTER
(Continued from Page ID

Volubilities of his inSurgent visit
oTs; but that. to my mind, is not so
difficult as il is to believe that Roose-
welt would accept nomination this
year under any conceivable circum-
stances. For it must be admitted
that nothing short of a national cri-
sis-such as may come in the future,
but is not within the range of sane
imagination now-would ever be ac-
cepted as Justification for such a
change of front-and this Roosevelt
must know
The secretary of the treasury un-
dertook TO define, What is Pro-
gressive?" giving to President Taft
that title and calling the Republican
insurgents reactionaries. His con-
clusions regarding Republican pro-
gressives were epitomized in these
words:
There is class of progressives
who give constant emphasis to the
title of progressive, but who have not
the invariable scent for progress and
who are liable to trail off and bark
up the wrong tree-the reactionary
tree-now supporting the old log
rolling system of tariff legislation
and now attacking the supreme court.
OuI present luSul Stll6 are Vi lDlS
class"
Mr. MacVeagh argued that Presi-
dent Taft had assumed and been
faithful to the policies of his pre-
decessor-'' platform of the pro-
gressives in the Republican party
augmenting them by another dis
tinguished list of great policies of
his own"
Taft and Roosevelt" Mr. Mac
Veagh continued, have been two
eminent Presidents and their admin
istrations compliment each other
and are practically one. Roosevelt
came first, as he should have come
and Taft came next. as he should
have come. Roosevelt blazed the
way and Taft has made that way
highway"
The motto of the Republican op-
ponents to the President. the secre-
tary declared, was anything to beat
Taft. "
When it was found impossible"
continued Mr. MacVeagh, ITO make
headway with La Toilette or Cum
minis because they failed to touch
the national Imagination the in
surgents looked about again and
then thought of Roosevelt. This au-
thorized, happy-go-lucky Roosevelt
movement is the latest way to beat
Taft 1t is the new club, the new
bludgeon. Why they should wish to
beat Taft and all is beyond rea-
sonable human comprehension. They
don't want to nominate La Toilette
or Cummins or Roosevelt The any
thing to beat Taft movement was
begun as vendetta and it has more
or less of that blood-in-the-eye char
acter still.
Unless l am greatly mistaken
they will find a different man to
deal with in Roosevelt. believe
the anything to beat Taft people
will never succeed in getting Roose-
welt to lead them. They are dealing
with one who knows politics and
with a man who has wealth of
great things of the past to look af-
ter, to cherish and to protect. A
third term-even if third term
was legitimatized by the authority
OF unanimous demand of the peo-
pie would be of far less value 10
MN than the undimmed record of
the two terms he has served.
II was an uncompromising Roose-
welt man when Roosevelt was Presi-
dent; and | am his political friend
today. And it is because / have so
long trusted his political and patri-
otic instincts that have not wavered
N my belief that Roosevelt would
not-and with his makeup, could not
conceive a reason why he should
run against Taft.
The record of Taft cannot be
impeached before the people. And
Roosevelt is not, as | measure him
the man to be caught with the thin
ehatf of thin opposition movement
There is no progressive crisis in the
republican party-and no progress
sive quality in the anything to beat
Taft idea.
Moreover Roosevelt has laid
down the course of his future polit-
ical career He stated himself out
OF the political arena when he made
ais declaration in 1904. And he
viii not come back into it-and
surely he ought not to come back
into ito contest for mere political
honors nor to help a factitious re-
volt; nor for any but some impera-
tive reason that will incontestibly
lustify, in the calm Judgment of all
hlsh-minded men. the change of n
deliberate high conviction and the
withdra wal of deliberate profound
DrDmisa -