THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND, FEBRUARY
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Remarkable Symposium of
Opinions As to His Future
Place jin the World's Act
ivities by His Fellow Makers
of History.
By Brought on Brandenburg.
Copyright. 1B08, by the New York HeraM Company.
BV BROl'OHTOSr HnADKBtHti.
The people of the United States are pravely concerned
as to who the next President of the United States will be. The
men of affairs of the whole world as well as the people of the
United States are profoundly interested as to what the next
oceupatibn of Roosevelt will be. This topic is coming to be one
of intense discussion and the widest speculation.
There are herewitji presented the expressions of opinion
thereon and the suggestions of eminent men as to what he
should do, which matter I have collected with but few excep
tions since Mr. Roosevelt's ultimatum on the question of a
third term, and also, of course, since the late financial distur
bance, which is considered by some to have had great bearing
on the complexion of the American political situation, though
others contend that it has merely drawn the lines of contest
between reform and reaction all the more sharply.
IT is folly to underestimate the place
Theodore. Roosevelt holds In the
nilnd of the American public, . and
It is commonly admitted that there
never has been a man who could lead
so preponderating a body of hi coun
trymen In any given direction. He Is
unique among our Presidents In a
dozen ways, and tfce most consplcufcus
of these Is that 'at the age of BO ho
will have spent nearly eight years In
the presidential chair, will have left
an Impression on our history as deep as
that of Washington, Jackson, Lincoln
and McKinley, and yet leaves his post
in the prime of health, vigor and
potency. i
What ...111 U An iliirlnir tVia nort OA
. IIU L I. 11. lie uw l-i u I ' C ...v ..was
years, for common sense says that he
must be reckoned with as a National
figure? There can be no' one who be
lieves that he will remain inactive.
To what will he lay his hand?
. A solution of the problem already
has been offered to Congress in a bill
instroduced by Senator -McCreary, of
Kentucky;, whose proposal to make
former Presidents permanent commis
sioners to represent this Government
In The Hague Peace Congress, at $10.
000 a year and all expenses.
There is a current superstition that
our former Presidents do not live long
a'fter leaving the Presidential chair.
The computation of this record is inter
esting Indeed. Of the 25 predecessors
of Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Harv
rison. Zacharr Taylor, Abraham Lin
coln, James A. Garfield and William
McKinley died in office. Grover Cleve
land is the only living former Presi
dent. The average- number of years
that the 18 others lived. 1 11 years.
The average age of retirement or death
of all is 61, and Theodore' "Roosevelt
will be but SO on his retirement, three
years younger than either Fillmore or
Pierce, the youngest two on the com
pletion of Presidential .service except
James A. Garfield, who- was assassinated.
The record:
Age
at Re- Age
Terms tire- at
Name. Served, meitt Death.
ence to this obligation, which can hardly
he avoided, limits one who was once
President in his choice of an occupation
and prescribes for him only such work as
Is In popular Judgment not undignified.
The American people are the best peo
ple in the world, and the honor and re
spect with which, they follow to his re
tirement one who has served them In tho
highest office within their gift illustrates
the lnnnte nobility of the American char
acter. The truth Is that our people, so
fur from treating their retired Presidents
simply as relics of past honors, seem dis
posed not only to bestow upon them honor
and respect, but to continue them In
service so far as to not interfere seriously
with the untrammeled attention to pri
vate citizenship and their unrestrained-
resumption of the occupation of everyday
life.
THOMAS W. LAWS ON
George Washington.. 2
John Adams 1
Thomas Jefferson.... 2'
James Madison. 2
James Monroe. ...... 2
John Quincy Adams. 1
Andrew Jackson 2
Martin Van Burerr. . . 1
William H. Harrison. 1
John Tyler 1
James K. Polk. ...... 1
. ... 1
65
6(i
66
66
67
66
70.
69"
68
R4
54
6.5
S3
at
TO
(.6
60
Zachary Taylor.
Millard FHlmore. ... 1
Franklin Pierce. . 1
James Buchanan 1
Abraham Lincoln. .. . 2
Andrew Johnson 1
1 lyases B. Grant.. 2 55
Rutherford B. Hayes. -1 61
James A. Garfield..,. 1 - 49
Chester A, Arthur... 1 55
Grover Cleveland. ... 2 6ft
Benjamin Harrison,.. 1 59 67
Grover Cleveland....
William McKinley. . . 2 68 S8
There are some suggestions which 1
cannot use directly. A European Anj
bassador told me that he was. glad the
old colonel of the Rough Riders, the
once Assistant Secretary of the Navy,
would still bo able to take the field In
case we have a war with Japan.
"You will not need to go through
a mauling to find a Grant to win your
war." .
A great Southern Democratic Senat
or said to me:
"If things go wrong in the next four
years the 'Solid South will see that
Theodore Roosevelt puts them right
again. The American people will toler
ate no 'shenanigan' unless they are
helpless, and they know they are not
helpless, as long as Theodore Roosevelt
Is sound in mind and body."
GROVER CLEVELAND
THE attitude of a President the day
he leaves his high office and be
comes a plain citizen of the United
States is one so peculiar that it requires
serious contemplation in the perspective
to get his proper relations to the people
at large.
There js a vague but none the less im
perative feeling abroad In the land that
one who has occupied the great office
of President holds In truBt for his fellow
citizens a certain dignity which in his
conduct and manner of life he is hound
to'pro.tect against deterioration. Obedi-
THB next Job for Theodore Roosevelt?
What a question to ask of intelligent
Americans! Are there other Theodore
Roosevelts than the one who during the
last six years has stood' in. the calm and
the storm on the deck of the old ship
Republic, with her precious cargo of hu
man soulq, and with uncomplaining forti
tude and dauntless ' courage has steered
her course through the treacherous seas
and h.as made all the habors of America's
rugged shores, repelling piratical board-,
ers and avoiding all decoy beacons? No!
Only one Theodore Roosevelt. Then the
question Incubates Its own answer. The
next Job for Theodore Roosevelt after
March. 4, 1!)9, Is helmsman still for the
old ship until she readies tue harbor she
starred for on her present voyage.
Every state in the Union can furnish a
dozen ideal Governor Generals of the
Philippines, a score of presidents of Har
vard College, heads of peace movements
or .Secretaries of the Navy, but In none of
them is there a man who can hold tho old
ship to her course. In calm and gale
alike, In this critical passage none but
Theodore Roosevelt. In none of them Is
there a man to whom the passengers of
the old ship would Intrust the finishing of
this perilous, voyage If they but knew
the mines and false harbor lights she
must weather.
God forbid that the .American people
should allow Pilot Roosevelt to hunt .a
new Job until he has berthed the Repub
lic at her destination. Old sailors will
tell you there is in the career of every
stanch ship some one particular voyage
which decides her fate for weal or woe,
and with horror they would listen to the
suggestion that such ship's skipper be
changed after she had started on such a
voyage.
As an -Intense American, who reverences
the very dirt of his country, one who
knows the history! his forefathers wrote
with blood upon their raw flesh, and one
who .knows his country's sons and daugh
ters, I cannot believe the American people
are going to allow the raping of her
traditions. -..
History, that horny-handed styluser of
the past, left upon no tablet a single tale
of a people of any nation taking from the
middle of his gloriously successful task
one of their heroes and depositing him by
the roadside." History tells of many peo
ples, now dead, who In spells of temp
orary insanity arising from Joy at their
heroes' victories, who in temporary mad
ness at his defeats. In the temporary be
wilderment at his inactivities, killed him,
but never have any people in the tally
ing of their heroes' on-sweeping successes
deliberately, In the middle of a vital
campaign, plucked him from the saddle
and laid him upon the roadside grass.
The degeneracy sogged Roman aristoc
racy upon whom Caesar had shed an eter
nity of glorious radiance drained th-lr
flagons of green Jealousy until their mad
Caesar-hating brains visloned all things
scarlet, but even then they, the glorified
of human beasts, allowed the greatest
hero of them all to complete the conquer
ing of the whole world ere they plunged
their daggers beneath his imperial ribs
to the royal heart beyond. TUat inex
orable strumpet, Fate, stayed her hand
until the sainted Lincoln's task was fin
ished, ere she hurled him to that rest
which comes to thoe whose fight has not
been In vain. There was nothing fur
ther for Grant to do when the people dis
missed him.
Shame everlasting, damnable shame be
the heritage of the system-oppressed peo
ple If they allow Theodore Roosevelt to
hunt another Job while the grand work
he has so superbly begun and so bodly
carried along with the speed of a Mer
cury, the strength of a Samson and the
honesty of the man Diogenes unsuccess
fully sought, is yet In the blue print stage.
The question should not be, "What will
be Theodore Roosevelt's next job?" but
who In the name of all that is sacred to a
free and Intelligent people is there
In all the land who can complete the Job
he began? -He is working overtime, 'but
It cannot possibly be finished by .March,
1909. Who Is there of all the giant Ameri
cans who possibly could get the hang of
Theodore Roosevelt's uncompleted Job
nutil long after all his grand work for
the people had been syndicated Into a new
people's skinning trust. Who would uare
accept' 'Theodore Roosevelt's unfinished
task with the fact confronting him that
the people are wholly In earnest In their
demands to have It finished? 'Who Is
there of all the midget Americans who
would dare take any public crib-feeding
Job that could survive the first fierce
bellow of the people as they' watched
.the midget wrestle with the tools which
the great Roosevelt will lay down, as they
watched the pigmy sweat and, tug and tug
and sweat at the Job which called for
the full exercise of all the magnificent
physique, all the splendid mentality, all
the grand morality, all the simple honesty
and unequally experience combined with
the fondest coddling of Mother Fate witn
which Theodore Roosevelt has been en
dowed: as they watched him struggling
with the 'job to prevent the turning of
which Into a Punch- and Judy show re
quired all the tireless efforts of one of
those human giants wjilch God In his
Infinite wisdom sends to a people only
when the people's dire necessities cry to
heaven for it? " , -
Truly I cannot conceive of the American
people allowing Theodore Roosevelt to
hunt another job on March 4, 1909. If
the American people should commit such
a monstrous error, I have clear vision
of the next Job of President Roosevelt
pallbearer for the constitution of the
d est fool people who have ever been
allowed to turn an eagle hatcnery Into
a mud poke Incubator.
EMPEROR WILLIAM
PROFESSOR SCHISM AN, eminent sci
entist and intimate friend of the Em
peror of Germany, is permitted to quote
his distinguished sovereign as follows:
The mastery of the problems of his coun
try and the oomprehensiun of their propor
tion in the world scheme .marks President
Roosevelt as far too treat to be sacrificed
to any misunderstanding of his alma and
usefulness on either side of the Atlantic, If
he Is not to continue in his present relation
to his people It Is to be hoped that he will
return to It after the constitutional period,
and In the meantime be accorded the sup
port of his successor In the coinDletloa of
those far-reaching- reforms on which he has
set out.
Prince Alexander Sourkan, Engineer and
and Explorer The people of the United
States are more alert than the people of
any other nation, but they know less of
the surge of life in other parts of the
world tnan either the French, Russians,
Germans or English. The Englishman
goes everywhere on the globe, and always
takes home something for the good of
Great 'Britain, a new medical herb, the
location of a new mineral field, the data
of some archaeological find, the new trade
possibilities in some undeveloped region,
and he reports it all to his society or
writes to the papers about 4t. The Amer
ican makes a yearly trip to Europe, rlco.
chets about in an automobile or with a
tourist party till his pockets are empty
and his wife's trunks are full, and then
he goes home with but little more welt
polilik In his narrow, hard head than he
had.
Theodore Roosevelt is the first President
the United States has ever had. with the
possible exception of General Grant, who
ever had a . grasp on the great world
game, and his failure to enter Into some
pursuit that would give the benefit of his
grasp enersy and foreign popularity to
his pountrymen would be a distinct mis
fortune. i If it be permitted to suggest, the writer
C?f&?2r' svpyctr jZ&C SOCZfy&?r.
would say that he should seek that par
ticular Cabinet portfolio which has to do
with his country's foreign trade. If a na
tion has the second navy In the world,
has such enormous manufacturing ca
pacity, why not build up the first foreign
trade in importance? Do the importers
and exporters of the United States even
dream what would happen to American
trade if Great Britain and Germany were
to go to war and the Scandinavian coun
tries were to become German allies,
something which has never been improb
able) in the last 15 years? .There would
be a grand suppression of trade In ships
under the five flags and there would not
be enough neutral cargo carrying ships
afloat to carry into and out of American
ports in a year the present tonnage of a
fortnight. The United States, though
entirely neutral and at peace, would
suffer the most frightful business ca
lamity. All because her great importing
trade and small but important exporting
trade is carried in foreign ships.
There is no good reason why the United
States should not have a huge exporting
trade and a fleet of cargo carriers to