WHAT ROOSEVELT WILL NOT DO.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 901, 22 August 1910, Page 7

WHAT ROOSEVELT WILL NOT DO.

REMARKABLE STATEMENT. RESENTS WAY REPUBLICANS HAVE REJECTED HIM. MAY CONTEST PRESIDENCY. By Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright. (Rcc. August 21, 5.5 p.m.) New Yo?ki August 20. A conference hns taken place between Mr. Boosovclt -and leadors of. tlio Republican party at the Roosevelt summer residence at Oyster Bay, Long Island.. . Mr. Roosevelt said he resented tlio way in iihieh the Republicans had rejected his candidature for the Chairmanship- of the New York State .Convention, to .which they had elected the Vice-President, Mr. Sherman, a staunch Conservative. He then proceeded to make a remark- ! able statement. As' ho does not wish to cause a rupture' with the Taft Administration, Mr. Roosevelt said he will not attend the Republican State Convention; he will not participate in the State campaign; lie will not accept nomination for the State Governorship; and he will not enter the Senate. It is understood that Mr. Roosevelt will defer further efforts to re-enter American politics until-the opening of the next Presidential campaign in 1912. If ; the Republicans then reject tlio Roosevelt policies, it is said that he will contest the Presidency. - A DIVIDED PARTY. Writing of tho outlook for tho. Congressional elections in November, a New York correspondent said on July 10:—The ides of November are at hand,-and rarely in the past has the political future, been so uncertain. Both parties are underdoing a 'weeding-ouf process. - The good. Democrats and good Republicans are for the moment almost everywhere stronger than their party organisations; ffnd to save themselves from ruin each ftachine must send its bad men to Hie rear: All chances seem to be in favourof a Democratic majority in the Lower House, but the return of Mr. Roosevelt has made even this still a matter of doubt, .for possibly the'unpopular 'machine Taft Republicans may be replaced, 'not by Democrats, but by a sort of third-party Roosevelt men. "At any rate, Roosevelt has again already plunged into active politics; and the newspapers give counter-lists daily of pil-grim-callers upon Mr. Taft at' his modest Massachusetts summer home at Beverley and upon' Mr. Roosevelt at his even humbler villa at Oyster Bay. No insurgents, and only very regular Republicans and officials, visit Beverley; no officials, all insurgents, and a surprisingly large number of regular and organisation Republicans, with now and then an occasional Democrat, visit Oyster Bay. •

Last week, by a. single-vote, a measure in the New York Legislature favoured by .Mr. Roosevelt was ..beaten, but forthwith the. men most prominent in beating it niado engagements to call on the ex-President— presumably to explain their votes. But, so far from there being any open hostility between, the two great chiefs, -they have already met in the presence of a single mutual friend—Governor Hughes, of New York; and a recent authentic though formal note beginning, 'My Dear' Will,' and signed "T.R.," has found its way into the newspapers. Still,.the removal from office of-Roosevelt, men has not stopped, and in some .conspicuous cases of men who have earned a national.reputation by good .work." A New Deal Wanted.. .'...,,.. Mr. Roosevelt's-■ return- (wrote tko "Morning Post" on June 13) is.apparently to be the signal for'a remarkable departure in American politics nothing less, in fact, than the formation of a new -party. The .announcement was made on Saturday by Mr. Pinchot, who, it will be. remembered,, was formerly United States Forester and the m»st prominent exponent of the.Rdosovelt forest conservation, policy, and was dismissed by Mr. Taft on the ostensible ground of insubordination, but in reality, 11 is alleged, for attempting to prevent the alienation of public lands ill Alaska and elsev here. . Mr. Pinchot is a personal friend and devotee of the ex-President, and is fresh from conversation!! with him in Eurcpe, and may in fact be regarded as Mr. Roosevelt's chief benchman.

The new party will be led by Mr. Roosevelt, in conjunction with Mr. Garfield, exSecretary of the Interior, and Mr. Pinchot. It will presumably be formed out of the, ranks of the "insurgent" Republicans, who have revolted against the high tariff. But the .tariff question is only a specific application of the wider doctrine of restoring purity to the national politics, summed up in the phrase, '-'A'new deal and a square deal." The representative system of Amerjca, it appears, had failed. Members of Congress at the present time represent not. the voters, but the ,great commercial monopolies, und are under their control. l The Americans, according to Mr. Pinchot, can no longer trust Congress, which is careless of the interests of the people, and the new party will devote itself to the maintenance of popular rights as against the vested interests. Mr. Taft's New Course. •In its' 'review of the American political situation, Uiu. "American Review of Roviews" for July says:— ... Mr.'Taft's disposition to'raid those Senators and Representatives out of the part}- who. voted against the PayneAldrich tariff has been the most disruptive and unfortunate thing that the Republican paTty has had to encounter in its recent history. The Republicans of the Middle West who have been stigmatised as "insurgents" have for the most part had a long record of party loyalty and service; and to have tried to break them down in their own communities for voting against tho Tariff • Bill, was. to have shown great 1 lack of political discernment, as weli ns a lack of tolerance and humour. The word "insurgent" arose in a different way, arid ought not to have been applied where it did not fit the case. Tho insurgents wero simply those members of tho House who chose to make tho light against Speaker Cannon's control'of business under the existing rules. One by one the worst features of tho rules have been modified, without unduly weakening the system required for the dispatch of business. The House insurgents havo made' things very lively thus far in the present Congress aifd tho storms they have created have, done 'a great deal of good and vory little harm. It would never have been guessed that Mr. Taft, of all men, should have become the intolerant champion of tho old-tinio party leaders in the two Houses, to the extent of showing a willingness to use patronage and the multiform power of the Executive for tho overthrow of the spirit of political iinlopcndeniai. There is sonco reason to think that Mr. Taft already sees a new light, and that he will prefer to bo tli» country's President rather than tho avowed chief of the party in power; while as a Republican he will prefer to belong to the wholo party, including its progressive two-thirds, rather than to the wing of the party whose leadership, if undisputed, would moan defeat beyond any reasonable hope. The spirit of the Republican party is progressive; and Mr. Taft will never fiud himself in a very happy or congenial atmosphere until ho makes it entirely plain to everybody that ; tho progressive thought and leadership of tho country is to bo welcomed and tolerated, whether it agrees with his views in all matters or detail or not.