Evening star., 1916-03-09
TO PERMIT NO FACTIONAL
STRUGGLE IN HIS BEHALF
Declares It Would Be Mistake to
Name Him Unless Country Is in
Heroic Mood.
FLAYS THE ADMINISTRATION
Does Not Believe People Will Be
Content to Change to One Equal
ly Timid and Vacillating'-The
q. S. Facing Grave Crisis"

q. S. Facing Grave Crisis"
NEW YORK. March o.-Col.
Theodore Roosevelt. who is now
at Trinidad, British West Indies,
in statement given out today
through the New York Evening
Mail, emphatically declines to be
a candidate in the primaries OF
Massachusetts or OF any other
state.
Il will not enter into any fight
Tor the nomination" the colonel
says, and will not permit any
factional fight to be made in my
behalf. Indeed, will go further,
and say that it would be mis-
take to nominate me unless the
country has in its mood some
thing of the heroic. unless it feels
not only like devoting itself to
ideals, but to the purpose meas
urably to realize those ideals in
action.
Rare Epocn in U. S. History.
This is one of those rare times which
come only at long intervals in a ma
tons history, when the action taken
determines the life of the generations
that follow. Such times were those
from 1876 to 1883. in the days of Wash
ington, and from 1858 to 1865, in the
days of Lincoln.
1T is for US of today to grapple with
the tremendous national and interna-
tional problems of our own hour in the
spirit and with the ability shown by
those who upheld the hands of Wash
ington and Lincoln.
Whether we do or do not accom-
plish this feat will largely depend on
the action taken at the republican and
June. Nothing is to be hoped from the
present administration. All
that they offer us is choice between
degrees of hypocrisy and degrees of in
fanny. But disgust with the unmanly
failure of the present administration
I believe does not. and l know ought
not to mean that the American people
will vote in spirit of mere protest
They ought not to and | believe they
will not be content merely to change
the present administration for one
equally timid. equally vacillating,
equally lacking in vision. in moral in
tegrity, and in high resolve. .
Must Clarity Our Policies.
We must clarity and define our poll
cies. We must show that our belief
In our governmental ideals is SO real
that we wish to make them count in
the world at large. and to make the
necessary sacrifice in order that they
shall count surely. We of this great
republic have d contribution to make to
the cause of humanity, and we cannot
make it unless we first show that we
can secure prosperity and fair dealing
among our own men and women.
Il believe that in a crisis SO grave il
is impossible too greatly to magnify
the needs of the country, or too strong
ly to dwell on the necessity of minimiz-
ing and subordinating the desires of
Chicago will have it in their power to
determine the character of the admin
istration, which is to do or leave un-
done the mighty tasks of the next four
years. That administration can do an
incalculable amount to make or mar
our country's future.
The men chosen to decide such
question ought not to be politicians
of average type and parochial outlook.
Still less should they be politicians
Had ht- S-t i-th tv,ft
within or without. They should be the
very best men that can be found in
our country. whose one great mission
should be to declare in unequivocal
straight-out national Americanism. in
deeds not less than in words and in
internal and international matters
alike, and to choose as a candidate a
man who will not merely stand for
such a program before election, but
will resolutely and in good faith put
it through if elected.
June "a Long Way Off,"
June is long way off. Many things
may occur between now and then. 1t
any degree of certainty who should be
nominated at Chicago. The crying, the
vital need now is that the men who
next June assemble at Chicago from
the forty-eight states and mingle the
views of the entire country shall act
with the sane and lofty devotion to the
interest of our nationas as a whole which
was shown by the original continental
Congress. They should approach their
task unhampered by any pledge, ex-
cent to bring TO it's accomplishment
every ounce of courage. intelligence
and integrity they possess"