FOR UNITED STATES PRESIDENCY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2742, 10 April 1916, Page 6

FOR UNITED STATES PRESIDENCY

MOVEMENT IN FAVOUR OF SENATOR ROOT ByTelegrank-Press Aswolation-OopyrlgM (Rec.' April 9, 5.5 p.m.). Washington, April 8. A movement has been started to induce Senator Elihu Root (a former Secretary of State) to run for the Presidency. The movement is widely favoured. Even Colonel' Roosevelt's friends are joining Mr,'Rbritj who, it is believed, is likoly to accept if sufficient support is forthcoming.

PRESIDENTIAL POSSIBILITIES

On February 15 Mr. Elihu Root delivered a speech at the Carnegie Hall, New York, which stirred America. It was in. the main a denunciation of President Wilsonis foreign policy, and has beon treated by the_ United States Press as indicating the issue on which the Republican Party proposes to fight the Presidential election later in the year. Senator Root's qualifications for the Presidency arc discussed in an article' entit'led "Presidential Possibilities,"' published in "Collier's," by Professor Frederick M. Davenport, who was the Progressive (Bull Moose) candidate for Governor of New York last year, running against the successful Republican, Mr. Whitman, and who is evidently prepared to help to lead the Progressives back -to the Republican fold on a liberal platform' with Mr.' Root aa the standard-bearer. Professor Davenport ' says :t—"Elihu Root had his origin distant from the haunts or tho ideals of" Toryism or aristocracy. He was born on tlie campus of Hamilton College in ' central New York, a little democratic institution of two hundred- students, far from the salt water,' but well known because it has always stood for something and has turned, out not a few graduates who have attracted the attention of the country. -One' of them is Elihu Root. He'is the biggest of them. .' His father was the professor of mathematics, and tho son inherited the precision of his mind. . He early chose to get close to the souroes of power in the country and to endeavour to get what of good he could out of.them instead of fighting them.' ,He has been accused of acting ■as-'legal counsel to one section of what is called the money power.. Undoubtedly he: has so acted. And, of course, the. money power is entitled to counsel, andattmies lias needed it badly. And I have always. noticed that a big corporation • in' trouble always hires the best lawyer to be had." Secretary I Root has 1 been successful in his tutelage of the Central American Republics, also in his active participation in. the administration of "the island republics of Santo Domingo and Cuba. Du»ing 1908 Secretary. Root's diplomatic activity resulted in the conclusion of no fewer than seven arbitration treaties with other States (including Great Britain), and he subsequently added to his -list the important'.' Agreement with Japan. He is a man of fine' moral character and a brilliant administrator. On one occasion, when Mr. Taft succeeded in getting another candidate for the Senatorship to withdraw, the' President saTd that he (Mr. Taft) was "very desirous" that his Administration should have "tlie benefit in the Senate of the exceptionally valuable assistance which Mr. Root can, render by reason of his intimate knowledge of all the important matters with which the Government has been concerned both at home and abroad during the M'Kinley- and Roosevelt Administrations." <

Mr. Root is in the early seventies, having been born in 1845. Ho was admitted to the Bar in 1867. He was elecfe'd District Attorney for the southern district of Neiv York in 1883-5; President M'Kinley's Secretary for War-, 1889-1904; President Roosevelt's Secretary of State, 1905-1909; senator, 1909-15; member, Alaskan Boundairy Tribunal,: 1903; counsel for the United States in North Atlantic Fisheries Arbitration, 1910; awarded Nobel Peace Prize,; 1912 ;■ chairman, Republican National Convention, Chicago, 1912.