New-York tribune., 1915-07-12
7. R. WILL BACK
ANY REPUBLICAN
THAT'S DECENT
Calls Wilson a Second
Buchanan Crisis Too
Serious for Politics.
OFF TO PANAMA FAIR
ON TWO WEEKS TRIP
Cost Him 100000, He Admits, to
EXPOSE Bosses" Through
Suit Against Barnes.
By GEORGE HENRY PAYNE.

Jun Dol llNOs
By GEORGE HENRY PAYNE.
Leaving for California last night,
Colonel Roosevelt made clear that he
regards the country in such a serious
situation through the mistakes of the
Wilson administration that he will sup
port any decent Republican who runs
against him-by which is meant Re-
publican whose reactionary taint and
tendency is not Of the ultimate or the
penultimate degree.
To the Colonel's mind, Wilson has
shown himself to be a Second Bu-
chanan." The attitude Of the admins
tration on foreign matters has been to
the Colonel "inconceivable"; and, more
important still, the failure Of the ad-
ministration TO make military and
naval preparation for the crisis that it
now faces is, in his own cogent phrase,
nothing less than criminal"
The Colonel has not gone back TO the
Republican party. He resents that mis-
Interpretation of his attitude. He be-
lieves that il is not time for men to
worry about political ties. At the same
time he regards il as not impossible
that the Republican party may make
the mistake of putting up some man Of
so reactionary character that it
would be impossible for him TO support
the Republican. But If the Republicans
do not make the mistake of putting up
some man who is a slap in the face at
the four millions who voted for him in
1912, Roosevelt will gladly join in the
battle to oust the man he calls the sec
ond Buchanan.
Bryan Movement UnimpOrtant.
The Colonel's attention was called to
the recent forecast of Hilles, McCoombs
and Perkins, the national chairmen of
the Republican, Democratic and Pro-
gressive parties. All agreed that there
would be four candidates in the field
in 1916, and all agreed that three of
them would be Wilson, Bryan and
Roosevelt. The Colonel, however, was
not inclined to take these statements
very seriously. He does not believe the
Bryan movement is important. More
over, he does not want TO sec so many
tickets in the field that there will be
danger of Wilson winning.
81 am thinking of the country" That
is the way the Colonel sums up his
position, and that is what he has told
number of men who have seen him
during the last week and tried to in
terest him in purely political discus
sions.
To the reporters who gathered last
night at the Grand Central Station,
just as he boarded the 6:45 train for
Chicago, he would say nothing more
about the last German note than to
refer them to the statement he issued
the day that the Lusitania was suLk.
Among other things he said then:
This represents not merely piracy,
but piracy on a vaster scale of murder
than any old-time pirate ever prac-
tised."
This is the Colonel's belief to-day,
and he called attention last night to
the abuse that followed his Lusitania
statement, followed later by country
wide recognition of the fact that it was
the only way to characterize the sink
ing of the Lusitania and the killing of
so many Americans.
Barnes's Suit Cost Him $4,000.
ASIDE from the nope IudL the htpuD-
licans will nominate a man he can sup
port, and that the issue will thereby be
clear one between Wilson and those
in favor of vigorous American policy,
the Colonel is indulging in no political
speculations.
Men who have tried to interest him
in state politics have had this one re-
sponse. He feels that he did his share
toward clarifying the state situation
when he made his fight against Barnes
in the courts at Syracuse. That fight,
it is not generally known, cost him
$4,000. There are not many men in
the state who have spent 100000 out of
their own pockets to expose the bosses.
When the Colonel went on the stand
at Syracuse he felt that majority Of
the jury were against him. Why they
were is not so important as the fact
that seven men out of twelve were in
clined to believe that, after all, William
Barnes was not an undesirable"
Having spent what to any man would
be a large sum of money, the Colonel
thinks that the next move is up 10 the
voters. The Colonel is by no means a
rich man, and, as he said a year ago
after there had been rather heavy
drains on his income, There are few
families that can afford a shooting, a
libel suit and a wedding in one year
and not feel it,"
When in California the Colonel will
talk with Hiram Johnson. Johnson has
said time and time again that he will
always stand by Theodore Roosevelt,
and it is hardly likely that if the Re-
publicans nominate man acceptable
to Roosevelt there will be any move
ment headed by Johnson-a movement
that would have its inception in the de-
sire TO help elect Wilson.
at the Colonel says that whatever
fight he is in for now is "for the coun-
try"