Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1907 — ROOSEVELT ENDS ALL THIRD TERM TALK. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ROOSEVELT ENDS ALL THIRD TERM TALK.

Issues Statement Repeating Hi* Election Night* Pledge Not to Accept Renomination. POLITICIANS ARE SURPRISED “I Have Not Changed and Shall Not “ Change,” Is His Irrevocable Decision. / President Roosevelt has officially and finally reiterated his refusal to accept a renomination and re-election, first made on election night of 1904. He did this in a statement formally issued from the White House Wednesday evening, which came as an entire surprise to everybody. Correspondents who went over to the White House for the statement, of which they had been notified by telephone, were entirely unprepared for its^on tents. It was written out by the President without consultation with any of the party leaders. Text of the Statement. He took into his confidence only his secretary, Mr. Loeb, and between them they prepared the following statement: On the night after election I made the following announcement: , “I am deeply sensible of the honor done me by the American people in thus expressing their confidence in what I have done and have tried to do. I appreciate to the full the solemn responsibility this confidence imposes upon me, and I shall do all that in my powej lies not to forfeit

it. On the 4th of March next I shall have served three and a half years, and this three and a half years constitute my first term. The wise custom which limits the President to two terms regards the substance and not the form, and under no circumstances will I be a candidate for or accept another nomination.” I have not changed and shall not change the decision thus announced. In the absence of any information further than that afforded by the statement itself, theories ran riot. Every statesman and politician at once put on his thinking cap and began to speculate! as to what happening or happenings had “forced the President’s hand,” as most of them put it. To those who have enjoyed the President’s confidence in relation to the perplexing political situation confronting the Republican party, the statement was as much of a surprise as it was to those not favored. The surprise, however, it must be borne in mind, was not so much with regard to the contents of the announcement as that it had come just when it did. It is practically certain that only a few days before the President had no intention of saying anything formally with respect to the third term question for at least several months, beyond what he said In his order commanding office-holders to cease their activity in his behalf.

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT.