Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-06-14
Fiue Minutes A Ddy
With Our Presidents
The Bull Moose
By JAMES MORGAN

The Bull Moose
III ever the name of Theodore
Roosevelt shall cease to live in poll
teal history and legend, It will still
shine forth from the metal tablets on
the exhibition cases in the National
Museum at Washington, where Curl
u visitors In generations to come
will pause to look in amazement at
the great beasts which this Nimrod
of the presidential line slew In the
jungles OF Africa. Those cases should
serve also to prove an alibi for
Roosevelt from the charge that he
was the slayer of the Republican ele-
plant.
Contrary to the unrefecting opin-
Ion the Republican party was already
disrupted and defeated while Roose-
welt was roaming the far-off wilds of
East Africa, when his political revo-
luton was completely overthrown by
a counter revolution. As President
he had made the party again some
what like unto what 1t was in it's
youth, the great organ of liberalism
and progress, giving it such a hold
upon the people as it never had be-
fore. He returned to find out, as he
believed, the party of st~andpattism
and reaction. with tidal a " of
popular dissatisfaction Moving
against ii.
Nevertheless he went at once on a
wearisome. hopeless tour of the
country in an effort to save the party
in the congressional elections of 1910,
and he tool the stump again in 1911,
with the same barren result. The
doom of the Taft administration in
the presidential election of 1912 al
ready was sealed, when a group of
Republican governors appealed to
the ex-President to be the party cam
didate and to lead a forlorn hope.
Even he would stand only a sporting
chance to wins and he responded in
sporting terms: My hat is in the
ring"
Although Roosevelt swept. by a
majority of more than 400, 000, the
eleven Republican states having pop
ular primaries, Taft was renominated
by the aid of the delegates from the
Democratic states of the south and
the steam roller" of the Old Guard.
This resulted i'm a bolt and the for
nation of the Progressive party, a
medley of good" m~illionaires from
Wal street, ~highbrows from academ-
ic groves, cowboys from the plains
and a '%lunatic fringe" singing on
ward, Christian Soldier" as they rail-
lied around their insurgent chief
when he declared: w stand at
Armageddon and we battle for the
Lord"
This naturalist in politics supplied !
~ bNIilDOl dDu HlChIdIhG lOI Ills z |
party when he assured a reporter in
the midst of his losing fight for the
Republican nominations: Il feel as
strong as a bull moose" The Bull
Moose" indeed proved to be amaz-
ingly strong at the polls, where 1t
carried six states M left only two
to the elephant-Utah and Vermont
with the Democratic mule winning
the presidency in a walk.
While campaigning In the middle
of october. Roosevelt was hot by a
crazy man In Milwaukee. HE pink
ed me-" he admitted to the anxious
bystanders. but he insisted on con-
tinuing his ride to the hall, where he
was to speak. Il will deliver thatt
speech or die" he persisted, and he
spoke with the bullet hole In his
chest undressed and bleeding.
The next year this unresting ex-
President outdid his African exploits
by plunging into the tropic wilder
ness of Brazil. At sixty-five he was
less fitted for the h~ardships which he
had successfully braved in the lark
Continent four year before, and he
never again was to be the robust
embodiment of that life
which, for a generation, he had prac-
ticed as well as preached.
The life of the Progressive party
was as short as its rise was sudden.
Is hiit Wv"
ed in 1916, II am still q Progressive"
he gave his earnest, If not enthusi-
astic, support to Charles r. Hughes,
the Republican nominee.
For two years before America en-
tered the war, his pon-he vas on
the staff of magazines and newspa-
pers-was continually goading the
country out of it's neutral position in
the great struggle. After we got into
the conflict, 1t continued to goad the
country to go faster and farther.
Roosevelt was eager to lead an
other band of Rough Riders to the
front, but President Wilson sustained
the objection of the military advisors
of the government to any volunteer
organizations II am the only n he
has kept out of the war;" the disap-
pointed applicant retorted on the re-
cent campaign slogan of the Presi-
dent.
He found proud consolation in the
service in the field of all four of his
sons. At the supreme sacrifice of the
| youngest, Quentin, who fell battling
| in the air, he turned a brave front to
| the public and gave nc outward sign
| of the cruel hurt that the blow must
have caused the heart of a father so
| fond. "Only those are fit to live who
do not fear to de- was his message
| from the SHADOW of the loss of his
baby boy. =.
Old foes hailed him as the hope OF
the Republican party in 1920. He
| smiled at the suggestion, though his
| intuition and his Increasing ailments
| may already nave warned him that
| he a fought his fight and finished
his course. Both his parents were
short lived, and he had exceeded his
natural prospect of life, when the
anal summons came to him as he
slept in his home at oyster Bay be-
fore the dawn of a January day in
1919.
The death of no other ex-Presi-
dent. of no other. private citizen IN
any land has called out such a world
wide expression of regret. To Amer
leans, It was like a death in the fam
ily. For twenty years Teddy" had
been passing in and out of their
homes like a familiar, and touching
their lives on every side. He had ex-
cited amor them the same instlnc-
tive affections and the same furious
resentments that are reserved FOR
kith and kin. First n last, all had
agreed and all had disagreed with