The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-04-06
COL ONEL. SAYS
 HE'S READY TO
 UN--PR0v|DINC
American and Preparedness Will Be Planks, Says
 Roosevelt.

oyster Bay, Apr1I 6-COlOnel ROOSe- welt in an interview at Sagamore Hill has virtually declared his candidacy for the Republican Presidential nomf- nation. The words he employed are far more emphatic than those of his Trinidad statement with it's demand upon the public for fheroic. mood"
 He goes further, setting forth the precise and only terms upon which he will accept the nomination, and not1- flying all delegates to the Republican national vonvention just what his candidacy stands for.
 How Declaration Game About
 The colonel was led into this dec- laration by one of his visitors at Saga more Hill yesterday. This visitor lives in a neighboring state and is a, candi- date for Congress. He also hopes to be delegate to the Republican na- tional convention. s
 t'You know, Colone1.'' he said, 1T may make up my mind that we will have to nominate you?''
 There was something in the ques- ton suggesting you-work-for-me- and-II1-return-the plinaent sort of hint.
 It did not seem to please the Col oneI, and he delivered his reply in short, sharp sentences, looking di rectly at the would-be delegate. Other guests at Sagamore Hill crowded around the Colonel as he spoke
 ''Wel1, now let me give you d piece of advice,'' the Colonel said. If you have any doubt the subject, do not nominate me. Get it perfectly clear inv our head if you nominate me it mustn't be because you think it is in my interest, but because you think it is in your interest and the interest of the Republican party, and because you think it is to the interest of the United States to- do so.
 sAnd more than that don't you do it if you expect me to pussyfoot on any single issue I have raised. Don't be forN me unless you are prepared to say that every citizen of this coun- try has got to be pro-United States, first, last and all the time, and no pro-anything else at all, and that we stand for every good American every where, whatever his birthplace or that in return we demand that he be an American and nothing else, with no hyphen about him.
 Must Be for America First. Every American citizen must be for America, first and for no other country even second, and he hasn't any right to be in the United States at all if he has any divided loyalty between this country and any other
  creed or birthplace or national origin so long as he is straight United States. lam for him if he is straight United States, and if he isn't I am against him, and don't you nominate me unless you are prepared to take the position that Uncle Sam is to be strong enough to defend, his rights and to defend every one of his people wherever those people are, and he can't be strong enough unless he pre- pareS in advance.
 "I am not for war. On the con- trarY, I abhor an unjust or 8 wanton war, and would use every honorable expedient to avoid even a just war. But I feel with all my heart that you don't, in the long run, avoid war by making other people believe, you are afraid to fight for your own rights.
 Uncle Sam must never wrong the weak; he must never insult any one or wanton1y give cause of offense to either the weak or the strong. The surest possible way to enable him to keep peace and to keep it on terms that will enable Am mericans to hold their heads high and not hang them in shame, is for him to be so prepar- ed in advance. And [ mean prepared in his own soul as well as with his army and navy that when he says any thing the rest of the world will know that he means it, and that he can make it good.
 His Conditions Are Final.
 Don't you try to nominate me un- less you think that is the policy that ought to be followed out and followed out for your sake as much as for mine and for the sake of /the rest of us here in the United States. And don't forget that isn't a course that pro vokes war. It is the only course that in the long run prevents war and secures national self-respect and guar antees the honor of this country and the rights of it's citizens wherever they may be-"
 The visitors of the day at Saga more Hill, were Horace s. Wilkinson of Syracuse, Henry l.. Stoddard, Geo. w Perkins and John c. Shaffer, pub fisher of Q, chain of newspapers in the Middle West. MT. Shaffer emphati- cally contradicted the repeated argu- ment that there is no Roosevelt sen timent, worthy of the name, west of the Alleghanies.