Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1912 — NOT RIGHT LEADER [ARTICLE]

NOT RIGHT LEADER

COLONEL ROOSEVELT'B RECORD IS NOT CONVINCING OF HIS FULL SINCERITY. TOO FRIENDLY TO PRIVILEGE ; People Will Judge Him By His Inaction Concerning Tariff While President and Will Not Accept Lofty Phrases Of Altruism. Mr Roosevelt opened his campaign in Massachusetts with a telling speech. It was expressed with a good deal more than his usual skill of rhetoric. It was more than ordinarily free from bitter and abusive personajItles It was pretty much confined to general appeal, and it was couched in the spirit of lofty morality and altruism which he has deliberately chosen to adopt in the presentation of his claims to a third term. We say this in no mood of fyypercriticlsm. We simply note as a matter of significance and importance that Mr. Roosevelt has assumed the role of ethical and even religious prophet and reformer, and that he hopes thereby to attain his personal aims.

The sentiment to which he appeals is of immense strength and virtue. It is the saving salt of humanity. It is the force that has advanced the race from its low beginnings more than any other So far as Mr. Roosevelt can p.ersuade the public that he Is sincere, that his aims are honestly pursued, that his methods are intelligent and practical, he will unquestionably win support. Nor that alone, he will deserve it. For it is not to be forgotten that in the actual situation of public affairs in this country the sentiment of morality and altruism is extraordinarily excised. It takes the general form of resentment of the reign of privilege. Mr. Roosevelt is seeking to convince the people that he is the embodiment of that resentment, and if he can convince them of that he will have a great following; there has been and still is - a reign of privilege excessively oppressive, and it should be, must be, and will be ended

Is Mr. Roosevelt the man to accomplish this, to lead in it, even fairly to begia It? We are persuaded that he is not. The worst type of privilege resting on legislation in thiß country Is the so-called protective tariff. It Is also the most corrupt and corrupting force in our affairs. Mr. Roosevelt w'as at the head of the government for nearly eight years, and he did nothing to lessen this privilege or to abate its evil consequences. He refrained from doing anything in his first term w hen it was plain that resistance to the. tariff extortions would absolutely prevent his nomination. That is a fair and practical test of his sincerity. We think that it will be applied to his present' proposals to the people, and that it will be fatal His professed purpose as to the future will hardly help him. He now says that he is in favor of a revision of the tariff by a non-partisan com mission So is Mr: Taft Each of them contemplates a revision that w ill leave the protective principle, and the favoritism inherent in it, in full force. Mr. Roosevelt in this thing—and it is the most important thing in sight—plainly has no intention of ending the reign of privilege Moßt of his first address in Massachusetts was devoted to fervent advocacy of the general notion of industrial amelioration and general denunciation of the courts for preventing it He has no monopoly of this matter. His criticism of the courts is based on misrepresntation, on exaggeration, and Is singularly sophistical. A reasonable analysis of his professions and his ideas, so far as he has consented to define them, shows a very pale and ineffectual conception of the great subject with which he is undertaking to deal. That analysis will be made In the course of the next two months. ' The American people will not take high sounding and, for the moment, telling protestations of superior humanity as proof of Mr. Roosevelt's peculiar fitness for the Presidency.— N. T. Times.