Evening star., 1937-04-08
Continued From Page A-8.)

bound crowd that was bored to death
with the usual run of fiamboyant
political oratory.
The boom that had been growing to
run him that year for Governor of
New York took on momentum. AS
early as April he had definitely stated
that the would not run, but poll
ticians could not accept such a de-
cision. All elements in the party
urged him to accept-Platt, Odell,
Wadsworth, Higgins. Fassett, Roose-
welt, Joe Cannon. On August Roose-
welt wrote his strongest plea, summing
up the support which was behind his
name: "One and all, they put it that
by present appearances, If you run
for Governor and were elected, you
would become the man most likely to
be nominated by the Republicans for
the presidency in 1908. -" 1t is
the literal truth that in the Middle
West the people are more interested
in your running for Governor OF
New York than they are in their
own State contests. This, you know,
was exactly the case with me in 49,"
Would Have to Quit Profession.
But Root would have none of it. 1T
would mean the permanent abandon
ment of my profession and my posi-
ton at the BAR he wrote to Lodge,
the breaking up of my home to my
self and my family, an exile for four
years from the associations which
liyiy, IN
change the complete surrender and
devotion of my life to sordid details
OF local politics throughout the
State"
Besides he was weary and run down
after his exhausting work in the
War Department, and as important
as any other consideration was the
knowledge that Mrs. Root hated that
sort of life, and he was unwilling to
impose 1t upon her. There is no
question that, as the political sit
uation stood in 1904, Root could have
been elected Governor, and the
chances are he could have had
second term and so stepped into the
presidency in 1908 as Roosevelt sug-
gested. But since he did not seek the
highest of1ice he declined the interme-
diate one.
Roosevelt later again urged him to
take the presidential nomination, but
Root steadfastly refused, and Roose-
velt satisfied himself that, while Root
would make a better President, Taft
would make 6 better candidate. He
af
that the latter's corporate and Wall
Street affiliations would be a serious
handicap, but with the strength of
Roosevelt's prestige in 1908, any man
he chose could have been elected.
= Thus Root turned down an oppor-
tl1nity to eliminate one of the bitter
contestants of the 1912 campaign, as
four years before he might perhaps
have eliminated the other.
He agreed to take the senatorship
from New York in 1909 because, in
those days, before the adoption of the
seventeenth amendment, no cam
paigning was required and the Office
itself required him neither to abandon
the legal profession nor to burden Mrs.
Root with onerous official social du-
ties. He could have had second
term, but in 1915 popular election of
Senators had supplanted election by
the Legislatures and he was unwilling
to campaign for himself.
Earned Hearst's Enmity.
Meanwhile, he had gained the un-
dying enmity of Hearst by contributing
largely to his defeat for the governor
ship in 1906. Roots speech de-
nouncing Hearst was one of his great
est efforts. He had also antagnoized
Senator Penrose and the rest of the
Pennsylvania Republican machine by