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Show o H THF ROOSEVELT-CHANDLER VE- J RACITY DISPUTE. Tho Chandler episode In tho rate-bill fl fight has boon referred to as "a tem- pest In a teapot." But judging by the fl Hood of newspaper comment evoked by ex-Senator Chandler's unhappy me-dlation me-dlation and tho subsequent controls contro-ls versy, tho country is very far from re-garding re-garding tho matter lightly. To somo of tho most prominent papers of the country, whether Independent or partial parti-al san, it is a source of regret that tho chief executive should havo permitted a question of veracity to arise between him aid another. Many, of course, explain ex-plain tho fact by his Impulsive habit of speaking unguardedly, and few deny him sincerity and honesty of purpose. Not a fow papers view tho wholo incident inci-dent ns an attempt on the part of tho Democrats to "put tho president In a hole," and to mako political capital from tho episode. But tho note of regret re-gret Is all-pervading. "All," says tho Now York Evet'ng Post (Intl.), "all the harsh descr ptlons of Mr. Roosevelt's Roose-velt's recent cou ;so havo simply led to a public appreciation of tho president's real naturo as It has long been known to many In private. ... Ho pursues pur-sues his object with Incessant and vehement ve-hement argument, a largo part of which It is charitable to suppose ho instantly forgets." At bottom, tho Post concludes, It is a question of psychology psychol-ogy rather than a moral problem that Mr. Roosoveit oitors. So tensely has tho public's attention fixed upon this controversy that when tho rate bill Anally passed tho senate by n voto of 71 to 3 (Morgan, Pettus, nnd Foraker voting against It) scarcely scarce-ly so much as a funeral noto was heard. It was provided originally that tho interstate in-terstate commerce commission fix rates which In its judgment should bo Just and reasonable. But tho words "In Its judgment" -were ilnally stricken out, nnd, as the President expresses himself as satisfied, he has obviously receded from tho Allison amendment. The bill is thus of tho "broad-review" order. It now returns to tho house for agreement agree-ment to tho senate amendments. To return to tho veracity business, .o Pittsburg Dispatch (Intl.), as well as other papers, thinks the president's characterization of the report concerning concern-ing tho executive's attitude toward Messrs. Foraker, Knox and Spooner as a deliberate and unqualified falsehood "loaves tho Issue a simple question of veracity which will bo determined by every partisan nccordlng to his bias." Tho questions at Issue were, first, that tho president said ho "was asked to seo" ox-Senator Chandler, who could speak for Senator Tillman, whllo Mr. Tillman denies that ho sent any ono to tho president; nnd, second, that according ac-cording to Mr. Chandler, tho president said ho was at a disagreement witn Senators Knox, Spooner, and Forakor becauso they "wero trying to injure or defeat tho Rate bill by Ingenious constitutional con-stitutional nrguments." When Senator Sena-tor Lodge heard this on tho floor of tho senate ho promptly called up tho president by oIepuono, and tho president presi-dent hotly branded tho Knox-Spooner-Foraker statement as a "deliberate and unqualified falsehood." Later tho president pres-ident wrote a letter 'to Senator Allison tolling, nmong other things, of Ills numerous nu-merous interviews with Mr. Chnndlci ns spokesman for Mr. Tillman, and of Interviews between Senators Tillman nnd Bailoy and Attorney-General Moody on bohnlf of tho president. Ono Democratic senator jocularly remarked when ho saw this long and carefully worded statement, that It could havo been written only by Alton B. Parker. Tho wholo troublo was precipitated bo-causo bo-causo the president, In tho opinion of tho Domocrats, deserted them after making them espouse his causo. "All in all," says tho Cleveland Plain Dealer (Ind. Dom.), "It Is tho most 'un-Rooso-veltlan' chapter in Roosovelt's official life." Many papers, as for Instance the New York Times (Dom.), object to the president's going ncross party lines, becauso "fow presidents have profited by appealing to tho opopsition against tho recalcitrants of their own party." As to tho President's branding of ox-Senator ox-Senator Chandler's stntoment, The Times thinks: "To call a man a liar who is not present and whom you havo no intention of fighting Is to do nothing noth-ing but exhibit that Inability of self-control self-control which belongs to tho savage" stato of human evolution."" And oven tho Philadelphia Press (Rep.) warns tho president against further "playing with edged tools,'' that is, Democratic senators. But for all that, there is a mighty chorus of opinion in defense of Theodore Theo-dore Roosoveit. To tho Kansas City Star (Ind.) Chandler, who lost his seat in tho senate through tho Boston and Maine railroad, who hates tho "conservative" "conser-vative" Republican senators, and who has long "nursed a righteous grudge" ngalnst railway corporations, is tho only "dark object In tho woodpile." And If wo would bo fair to tho president, presi-dent, points out the Indianapolis News (Ind.), "wo must remember tho sort of men with whom ho had to deal," and that the senate, which was at heart against tho rate bill, "hates tho president." presi-dent." In the opinion of tho Pittsburg Gazette-Times (Rep.) Mr. Tillman's digression di-gression "smacked of a betrayal of confidence con-fidence between gentlemen and had all tho earmarks of a Machiavellian plot to rnlso questions of personal veracity and disturb tho peace." Tho entire business, believes tho New York Journal Jour-nal of Commerce, "furnishes no evidence evi-dence of duplicity or intrigue or Intentional Inten-tional deception of anybody. . . It has been a prolific source of misunderstanding, misunder-standing, but In fairness to tho president presi-dent wo must say that wo see nothing worse in it han blundering." it will take "far more than the combined efforts ef-forts of Chandler, Tillman, and Bailoy," thinks tho Boston Journal (Rep.), to unsettle the "very definite conviction that Theodore Roosoveit is honest." Tho Domocrats, thinks the Milwaukee Sentinel (Rep.), "had hoped to get Democratic advantage out of a clash between tho president and his party which did not come," and the New York Sun concludes: "What Is obvious In the hubbub Is the determination of the Democrats to put the president in a hole, if assentation assenta-tion and abuse can do it. They deal In half-truths and assumptions and nothing Is moro in evidence than their coaching of Mr. Tillman, lest by saying too much the fat will be in the fire. It they cannot make any political capital out of the rato bill, they are bound to take a fall out of me president. It is a game they havo played a long while without scoring, and they are losing at it again." Literary Digest. |
