AMERICAN PRESIDENCY

Taranaki Daily News, 7 March 1916, Page 8

AMERICAN PRESIDENCY

MR. ROOSEVELT'S POSITION. POSSIBLE NOMINATION. Under date 11 tli January, Hie New York correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph says:—There will tip a Presidential election next year in the United States, mid henceforth Presidential polities will demand as much space in the American papers as the war itself. Mr. Roosevelt will go to the West Indies shortly, and declares that *e is not a candidate for the White House; but his agents are now busy, in conclave with election committees, and it. is the .crowing conviction that' Mr. Roosevelt will oppose President Wilson, and may he nominated as the champion, not only of his own special party, the Progressives, but of the Republicans also. His friends argue that Dr. AVilson will have a walkover unless Mr. Roosevelt ent"rs the ring, and it is believed, moreover, that Mr. Roosevelt's vigorous attitude regarding the war, his plea to save the national honor, and his advocacy of the doctrine of military preparedness will win him many votes. No Presidential election for many years will possess such interest for Europeans and Americans alike. Mr. George Perkins, chairman of the Roosevelt party, is now at Chicago, arranging for a National Convention on 7th June. He believes that such a convention will simply be a stampeda- for Mr. Roosevelt. His battle-cry is "Save the nation from dishonor." It is believed by Progressives here that at no time since the. Civil War has the nation faced such a serious situation as at present, and that the future welfare of the United States will depend largely on the leadership and results of the next year. "For the first time in the history of America," said Mr. Perkins, adressing the Progressives, "a national' Administration points with pride to a prosperity that is blood-soaked; fer the first time in the history of our country our men and women are allowed to lie murdered with impunity, for the first time our honorable name and flag are dishonored and dragged in the dust." (Loud cheers). Mr. Perkins declared that the Wilson Government bad utterly failed in its vision of courage and patriotism. "At its hands America is now enjoying prosperity through accident, and is preparing for adversity through neglect. At its hands our national honor is sullied at home and degraded abroad." Other Roosevelt leaders spoke in similar warm terms, and Mr. Bainbridge Colby,, amid a thunder of applause, said that the principle of democracy was now bill ling for life, and Americana were asked by President Wilson's proclamation of neutrality to sit still and remain silent. Jt was not ever thus, he continued, that America had stood mute and helpless in a crisis of the world, and he believed better things were in store. (Cheers). "I, for one," the speaker concluded, amid great enthusiasm, "refuse to believe that the voice of our country has yet been heard as to the unwarned sinkin" of defenceless merchantmen, the wanton .slaying of women and children at sea, the'trampling down of national, life, the violation of solemn treaties, and' the substitution of frightfulnoss for the laws of nations and of humanity."