The New President

     Theodore Roosevelt has taken the oath of office and is now president of the United States. He comes to that office under most sad and unfortunate circumstances; unfortunate even for himself. He has reached the highest goal of American ambition by an assassin’s bullet, and that of itself makes the position a harder one for him than if he had been the choice of the people. He follows a man who has been most successful in the government, and any false step that he takes will be more noticeable on that account.
     There is no need to deny the fact that the American people are afraid of Roosevelt as a president. They do not relish the change from the calm and conservative McKinley to the erratic and impetuous Roosevelt. They believed that the country was safe from avoidable complications and strife with President McKinley in the chair, and they are not so sure of it with Mr. Roosevelt there.
     There is much that is admirable about Theodore Roosevelt. His boasted strenuity and his determination “to do things” are strong points in his favor in ordinary life; but it is more than questionable whether these traits do not detract from his suitability as a chief executive. The man who is calm and deliberate is a better man to have at the head of affairs than he who is aggressive and impetuous. In a fight Roosevelt is strong; he has seemed at times to love strife for strife’s sake, and it is this trait that today makes the American people look forward through the next three years with something akin to fear. McKinley was a man of peace. He shrinked from antagonisms and differences. With him in the president’s chair all honorable means would have been exhausted before hope of peace was abandoned.
     Still, the responsibilities of the place may tame even the impetuous Roosevelt. He tells us that he will follow in McKinley’s footsteps for the maintenance of peace and prosperity. That is what the country wants at present. It hopes that the new president will remember his words on this occasion, and that he will be guided by them when his natural impulses are to hit back harder than he has received.
     There is one point in which Roosevelt’s aggressiveness may stand the country in good stead at the present time. That is in the handling of the anarchist question. The country is in the mood where it demands no more temporizing with these outcasts. It wants them taught an effectual lesson. It wants their claws clipped in such a manner that hereafter official life [will?] be safe from their dastardly designs. Roosevelt, it is believed, will not shrink from that task.
     Meantime the country will hope for the best from the new president. He is intrusted [sic] with a responsibility that has gone to few men so young as he is; that he may merit that responsibility is the wish of all men, regardless of party, who have the interest of their country at heart.