Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1916-06-22
ROOsEVELT'S %DECLINATION

ROOSEVELT'S DECLINATION
Colonel Roosevelt's tentative refusal
of the progressive nomination will be
recaived differently in different quar-
tiers. There will be some. among the
republicans, who, having had four
hungry years out of Office, with the
prospect of four other hungry years to
come. sufficient to make them lean, who
will hail his amazing action with glad
acclaim and will go forth to the ends of
the earth proclaiming his patriotism and
devotion to the cause of republican.
ism. They will forget that they have
accused him as the cause of famine of
Office which they have suffered since
1912 and will praise him only for what
seems to be his endeavor, by self-sacri-
flee, to once more reunite the party that
it may march to victory over his quiz
ering corpse.
There will be others, among the pro-
gressives, who will view his immolation
in another vein. who will regard it not
III a sacrifice but as cheap political
trick, as part of a "frame-up" arrang-
ed beforehand whereby the republican
nominee might be forcibly made the
fusion nominee of the two parties, a
compact entered into by the leaders of
both parties to double. cross the men
with the hoes who have famed their
backs in c~ultivating the political garden
that others might enjoy its produce.
10 them it will be a suspicious circum
stance that Mr. Roosevelt did not
come to Chicago, as though he dared
not trust himself amid the smoke or
battle, lest, with its acridity in his nos
trils. his high resolves be swept away
in a desire to do something personally
heroic and he be inspired to snatch the
standard from the hands of its bearers
and dash into the fray as thrillingly as
he tells us he did at San Juan.
The truth of Col. Roosevelt $ action
is not self sacrifice, whatever else it
may be. Mr.. Roosevelt as a politician
is astute if he is nothing else. He can,
without his glasses, see a hole in a mill
stone, read the writing on the wall and
translate q political situation with equal
facility. Apparently at his dictation
the progressive party delayed action on
the nomination until it was evident
which way the republican cat would
jump. Convinced by the third ballot
that the republican party did not intend
to nominate Roosevelt he babe the pro
%gressives to proceed with their grind
ing and when the name Roosevelt
emerged from the hopper the colonel,
convinced of the hopefulness of his
candiaaey with three parties in the
fs:i, &c nceived refusal Of the nomin.
ation as an excellent way to re-
habilitate himself in the eyes of the
republicans, a prime means to repair
the damage done in 1912 and a splendid
opportunity to lay the corner stone of
a possible candidacy in 1920 after Pres
2EFNAHr-LA& SL&H
dent Wilson shall have completed his
second term.
The republican party, he saw was
not in a heroic mood. 1t preferred a
candidate whose opinions on national
issues we're unknown to one who had too
often and too long dinned his own no.
tons Of right and wrong into the ears
81 4 suffering public. Since it had
chosen;that candidate the builder of the
Panama canal, the arbitrator Of the
kussian var. the despoiler of Columbia,
the friend Of the kaiser and the remaker
Sof English history in Egypt preferred
there b butsa single goat offered up to
The democratic moloch in November.