New Britain herald., 1915-05-04
Roosevelt and Platt.
-(New York Evening Post.)

1New York Evening Post.) Governor Whitman, if he had tried, could not have been so suoservient ta
 Barnes as Roosevelt was to Platt. Nor could he so unblushingly have made an important appointment merely "to please Grady''-the notorious Grady of T'ammany hall. Thus even the most obtuse juryman must now see that the colonel, when he was crying out ,ast year about the sum of all political villainies, knew what he was talking about. because he, when governor, practiced with gusto all the arts that he afterward came to call black.
 What was before merely suspected. or rumored or reported at second hand. we now have verified by MT.
 Hoosevelt's own letters. He did not furnish them, though doubtless he has copies of them all They had been
 preserved by Platt and Barnes. Their damaging effect is two-fold. First is their revelation of how Roosevelt felt about Hughes Of recent years the colonel has found it convenient to speak we'll of Governor Hughes. But at the time--in the thick of the fight
 what was his attitude? Active dislike and tacit opposition. In 1908 Roose- welt took precisely the view of Hughes that the governors envenomed oppon- ents-Barnes, Parsons and others did. Why? Hughes had "wantonly behaved badly to the very men who cid most in securing his election What did this mean? Simply that Hughes had broken with the party bosses; that in his desire to see justice done in this state, he had gone di- ,xI, f, f1,n nyoIn Tn, nf q his course had been precisely that which Roosevelt in 1912 lauded him. self to the skies for pursuing. But this was 1907 and 1908! Moreover, it was another man. And the lot of. that man was contempt and suilen an- tagonism from the great .boss-hater. Theodore Roosevelt. No, a word of appreciation had he then for the high personal qualities which Governor Hughes had displayed. or for the way
 in which he had bound to himself the best citizens of the state; only sneers at the man and acquieses in his second nomination merely as a, political necessity. The colonel may do lot of explaining about all this. but he cannot explain away his own letter. It remains to do infinite hurt tc his reputation.
 And then those letters of his to Platt! Unearthed in the boss archives
 they are about the ugliest thing that Roosevelt has ever had to face. Their showing is peculiarly damaging. since they make it plain that not only did Roosevelt work easily with this most offensive boss of his day, and submit nearly everything to his approval, but that he flattered him and fawned upon him and toadied to him and pro. fessed to take great delight In social intercourse with him. Roosevelt even went so far as to ask Platt to din- per with his wife--this he described as "a great pleasure'--and we have the boss message: Please give my kind regards to Mrs. Roosevelt" This must have been a terrible humiliation to a man of clean life like Colonel Roosevelt, who knew perfectly we'll what Platt had been in private. To have to deal with such man in pol itcs was a dose bitter enough, but to invite him to sit at family table alongside your wife--one scarcely knew before to what degradations po- sitical ambition compelled Colonel Roosevelt to subject himself