New Britain herald., 1914-08-01
Bosses Roosevelt Has Known.
 Gndia pOljS NeWS1

We long ago accepted the doctrine that MT. Roosevelt was the "only' or the ''one perfect man. Now the world is asked to subscribe to a de- recent remarks on the Barnes libel suit MT. Roosevelt said that it was proof that the bosses see 'in me per sonally the one enemy that the type of machine government for which they stand has to fear" Just one, and that one Mel" We do not be- lieve that there is even among the Indiana progressives a man who has a better opinion of himself that that revealed in the somewhat astonishing words we have quoted. We have in this country more than ninety mill lions of people, and yet there is in all this host but one man whom the bosses fear. The bosses are to be fe- licitated. Discussing this self-f1atter- ing utterance, the New York Evening Post says:
 '"This from the man who kept Barnes seven years in federal office while he was president who was dear friend to Boss Quay; of whom Boss Penrose said that he could get from him worse appointments than he ever dreamed of asking of McKin- ley; who whitewashed Boss Finn, and as governor came down from Albany every Saturday to lunch with and report to Boss Platt, probably the worst boss this state has ever known. The one enemy the bosses fear? Then the colonel has suffered a sea-change, for the bosses well know how pliable he was in office, and cynically joked about it, for their type of machine government never fourished better than when the colonel controlled the republican party"
 How the Post managed to forget Addicks. the worst of them all, we cannot understand. 1t must remem- Der the cases of Byrne and Miss Todd. Mir. Roosevelt accepted Addicks as head of the republican party in Della ware, though he vas not even in of- flee. A study of these cases as sketched by the friendly hand of Brother Leupp would prove illumi- mating. In those distant days Roose- welt even confessed to real liking for some bosses, as Leupp shows. We quote from "The Man Roosevelt"-
 Now and then l have heard him say of a boss 'On the whole, I've come rather to like him. or, Hes not such bad fellow, I find, after you have cracked his she'll; or of some special act of a boss, That was pret- ty square when you remember where 1t came from.
 Quay. Penrose. Platt. Finn and Ad- d;cks-such is the roll of Roosevelt bosses. men who never feared him, but. on the contrary, did business with him very satisfactorily. Even Barnes remained in office throughout the whole Roosevelt administration. If this is not an indorsement, what is it?
 But even if it be admitted that the bosses fear Roosevelt, it does not seem fair to say that he is the only man they fear, since there are Christian soldiers" in every state of the union who breakfast on bosses every morning. 1t is rather ungen- erous to withhold from them the .meed of praise. One could hardly imagine more bloodthirsty foe of the bosses than our own Taylor Gron- inger. But for his violetlike modesty we are sure that he would enter the contest against the Oyster Bay claim ant. An anxious country would also like to know whether there are, af- ter all, any bosses in the land except Barnes and Penrose. These are the only ones who thus far can have got the impression that the Roosevelt spleen is in any way abnormal