1008 
-THE RURAb NEW-VORKER 
October 22, 
Hope Farm Notes 
My children—in fact all our people—• 
arc interested in Theodore Roosevelt. 
They have read his books and followed 
his course. The boys asked me the other 
night to tell them what Mr. Roosevelt 
has done that one set of people should 
abuse him like a horse thief while another 
set praise him as a great leader. My 
judgment is that this question and what 
it stands for covers the greatest problem 
we now have in this country. Perhaps 
1 can help analyze it by giving exactly 
what various men have said to me during 
the last few weeks. 
“Rooserclt in on erratic fool !” 
I was in the South, waiting for a train, 
when an old man came up and began talk¬ 
ing about that country. Finally he said, 
“How’s politics up your way?" I had to 
tell him I was no politician, but that it 
seemed to me that the Democrats in New 
Jersey had the better chance of election. 
You should have seen the look of holy Joy 
that spread over his face. “Thank the 
Lord! Thank the Igird ! Jersey has come 
back,” was all he could say. Almost any 
Jersey Republican would have let the State 
go if it meant such rapture ! 
“I take it you are a Democrat!” was all 
I could say. 
"Democrat? I am an unreconstructed 
Rebel! I was 13 years old when the war 
was fought, and I shall never change. 
Roosevelt would tip everything upside 
down. I want no change. I want to go 
back to old ideas.” 
I talked with that man for an hour, and 
got his full point of view. He was intelli¬ 
gent and well read, and had evidently 
thought and studied history. He called 
Mr. Roosevelt “an erratic fool” because he 
advocated something that was new. It 
seemed to me that the “old ideas” he 
spoke of were as timely as the clothes 
they wore before the war. 
“Roosevelt is fighting for your hoys and 
minet” 
That is what another gray-haired 
Southern man told me. I think he was 
also a Democrat. This man said that 
under the old order of things the great 
trusts, the railroads and the politicians had 
captured society. That is not just the way 
he put it, but I give his meaning. Tbeir 
policy is always delay and do nothing. 
There is no use fighting them in the old 
way or with their own methods. Some 
great big man is needed to stir the people 
up and make them think. Roosevelt is big 
enough, and has done it. The country 
will be better for our children because he 
. has smashed the old forms. “God bless 
him!” said my friend. 
“Roosevelt is the most dangerous of 
men. He is smashing down the Supreme 
Court!” 
The man who said this is 83 years old. 
He thinks he ought to know, because he 
was a man of 33 when the Civil War broke 
out, and has seen much of history. He 
thinks Mr. Roosevelt’s talk will drive the 
monbj’ed men to force a panic and destroy 
business, drive men out of employment 
and bring on a civil war between the 
working men and capitalists. This man 
thinks the Supreme Court traditions are 
about as sacred as the Bible, and you 
would think to hear him talk that Mr. 
Roosevelt had thrown a can of dynamite 
at the Supreme bench. I tried to pin 
him down to definite statement of what 
he meant, but it was all general. 
“A 11 law is progressive. A court of 
Egyptian mummies might possibly suit 
these critics.” 
That is what a good lawyer said in reply 
to the old man. This lawyer pointed out 
how a number of important Supreme Court 
decisions had been decided by one vote. 
Each side had good legal precedent and 
the cases were finally decided by personal 
views or opinions. It is now very evident 
that in several of such cases the people 
would be better off if the minority had 
prevailed and the law construed as they 
desired. In a number of such cases the 
Court is fairly subject to criticism and, 
in view of what has followed, it Is not 
likely that now the same court would give 
the same verdict. Mr. Roosevelt has not 
attacked the Supreme Court. His fate 
criticism was justified by the example of 
Lincoln and other great lawyers. 
“Roosevelt is the greatest liar and crook 
in the country.” 
That statement was actually made to me 
by a business man, who said Roosevelt 
was ruining business, that he had never 
done anything, except talk and that “he is 
a very dangerous man.” 
“Look at the thieves they are catching 
at the New York Custom House.” 
An equally strong business man said that 
credit must be given Roosevelt for cleaning 
up the public service. There was no 
chance for doing this until public feeling 
was aroused and Mr. Roosevelt more than 
any other man had done that by his 
speeches and messages. “Every one is a 
sermon” said this defender. They have 
made the people think, and that is what 
was needed. 
“He wants to be king! He is simply 
playing for 1912!” 
I hear many very respectable people say 
that Some of them really seem to believe 
it. They would have you believe that the ex- 
President carrying all the honors that the 
American people could give him is now so 
crazy for power that he is playing politics 
for another term in the White House. This 
talk is repeated so persistently that I 
hardly know whether all who say this be¬ 
lieve it, or whether it is merely a “plank” 
in their political faith ! 
“He has a higher motive than office.” 
That was the reply made by a strong 
man of middle years—an independent Dem¬ 
ocrat in politics. This man thinks the peo¬ 
ple would never elect Roosevelt again be¬ 
cause they expect him to do a different 
work. What could Roosevelt gain by going 
to the White House? The American people 
could not possibly give him greater official 
honor than he now enjoys. lie does not 
need the salary. This man says that 
Roosevelt's ambition is to round out his 
career not with office, but by doing his 
great share in reorganizing parties or polit¬ 
ical society. He is a politician, knows the 
people and is quick to see that they are 
disgusted with both the old parties as at 
present organized and conducted. The sit¬ 
uation is just like that during the last few 
years before the Civil War, except that 
slavery gave a great moral issue to stir the 
people. Now, as then, the question is one 
of free labor and free men—- a struggle 
against organized injustice. This time it is 
on its face a commercial question. There 
is, however, a moral issue involved, but 
this has long been obscured. Mr. Roose¬ 
velt sees that this moral issue must be 
made dominant in one of the old parties, 
or “prosperity” will kill the nation. Being 
a Republican his desire is to make that 
party represent what he believes to be the 
true policy of this nation. If he . can do 
this, or help do it, he will live longer in 
history and be a far greater character 
than if he were elected President again. 
“Roosevelt is a moral coward. He will 
run the moment he sees he must fight an 
unpopular issue alone.” 
That statement is made by a Western 
man—an “insurgent” Republican who has 
been in the thick of the fight. This man 
blames Mr. Roosevelt for “saying one thing 
in Kansas and another in New York.” These 
Western men are hot fighters, and do not 
stop to realize that the East has two or 
three extra generations of “conservatism” 
to overcome. There is more timid money 
accumulated here than in the West, and a 
larger proportion of city people. Our coun¬ 
try people are slow to act in consequence 
of these tilings. Western farmers become 
impatient when New York, Pennsylvania or 
New England does not keep pace with them 
politically. Those Western men believe in 
“no compromise.” Men like La Toilette or 
Cummins are their ideals for leaders. They 
want some such man nominated for Presi¬ 
dent Mr. Roosevelt looks to them like a 
trimmer who would not dare lead a forlorn 
hope as their men have done. 
“Roosevelt not only has courage, but the 
common sense to know how to lead the 
East.” 
That remark was made by a Republican 
who voted the Democratic ticket in Maine. 
This man said he did so because the Re¬ 
publicans gave him no chance to register 
his disgust and conviction. The West had 
primary nominations and popular spirit. 
They were thus ready to strike the tariff 
or public evils with some chance of win¬ 
ning. The Populist campaigns led the way. 
But the primary was what made success 
possible. These Western men do not stop 
to realize that New York and the East 
generally have not adopted a fair primary. 
That is why they are less violent in their 
fight against the “interests.” What can 
these Eastern people do with the tariff or 
other big questions until they have primary 
that will control nomination ? Therefore 
the one great thing to fight for in New 
York was the principle of primary nomina¬ 
tions. Would not a man use stronger talk 
before a college than before a grammar 
school? Mr. Roosevelt knew that where 
the West has touched accomplishment New 
York has only desire, and he made his 
fight according!*. Had La Follctte or 
Cummins gone before the New York Con¬ 
vention with the ordinary speech demanded 
in Wisconsin or Iowa they would have 
frightened enough delegates to prevent an 
endorsement for a primary! 
So they talk back and forth. I could 
fill a volume with such discussion. One 
side calls Mr. Roosevelt faker, liar, fraud, 
coward, politician and “dangerous man.” 
That last is the most frequent. To the 
other side he is a great statesman, noble 
character, far-seeing politician and brave 
leader. It doesn’t cost you anything to 
take your choice. One thing is sure. With¬ 
out seeming to realize it the American 
people are starting away from what the old 
parties have stood for, and are ready for 
new ones. The division is very clear. On 
one side are the men who say “let us 
alone, conditions are good enough, or if 
they are wrong let us go back to the old 
plans.” On the other side arc the men 
who realize that present conditions and 
present tendencies are not right, and that 
most of the “old plans” are inadequate 
to handle the nation’s great problems. In 
other words instead of Democrats and Re¬ 
publicans our people will within a tew 
years be “Stand-pat” or “Progressive.” Of 
course that will not be the names of parties, 
but these words represent what they will 
stand for. Mr. Roosevelt may fairly be 
given credit for helping this change along. 
I do not think he is entitled to much 
greater personal credit than Mr. Bryan. The 
latter was a pioneer and had no such back¬ 
ing of office, influence or historical growth 
as Mr. Roosevelt receives. It is the grow¬ 
ing conviction that the two men stand for 
essentially much the same effort to arouse 
the people. Last Summer I talked with a 
Gape Cod Republican. On that sandy spit, 
if anywhere, you will get the original thing 
dried down and salted for long nse. Yet 
this man said “I am now satisfied that 
many of these things must be done, but 
they seem a little easier for us coming 
from Roosevelt than from Bryan.” 
There can be no question that Roosevelt 
has brought things to a head in the East. 
The West did its work without him. The 
criticism against him is to be expected. 
Washington and Lincoln were cursed in 
much the same way, and by much the 
same elements of society. Von cannot 
imagine ‘the immortal George” or “Hon¬ 
est Abe” campaigning as “Teddy” does, 
yet we must remember that these men 
lived in different times, when Americans 
were not so apparently helpless under the 
control of wealthy interests. 
I think we are beginning a bloodless 
revolution, which is to be an evolution 
of honest manhood. This is to come as 
a clear-cut political contest between two 
classes of people. One will represent ac¬ 
cumulated and inherited wealth—mainly 
that which is not fairly employed. The 
other clags will represent the money which 
is earned from day to day and saved as 
a fair competence. Any man who can help 
honestly to bring this new division in 
politics about is a useful citizen—I do not 
much care how he does his work, for the 
people will size up his motives properly 
and give bipi what he deserves, m. w. cl-- • 
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