The Possibility of Mr. Roosevelt

     The possible succession of Vice-President Roosevelt is looked forward to with some anxiety by many people. It is remarkably fortunate that at this crisis there happens to be in the vice-president’s chair a man deemed fit for the first place. He is no picked up make weight, but a man who from the start was well considered for the first place. He is a man of some power and of basic good sense. Should he come to the first place, responsibility will do its work for him. It will steady him and force him to take cognizance of others and other views. He is, we take it, a man who will listen to sound advice and moderate his enthusiasm with judgment when the heavy duties come to him. He is older than he was when governor of New York. His recent speeches indicate more thoughtfulness and broader views than characterized his flash after the Spanish war.
     Of course a change in the head of the government always brings along changes in many personal and political relations and some changes of a more important bearing; but one department, immediately concerned in the conduct of the government, remains the same, the legislative. The wide differences exhibited in Johnson’s day are not likely ever to be repeated, though potentially possible. The important consideration in this case is, that if Mr. Roosevelt shall come to the office and conduct it with success and not too wide divergence from its former lines, he will pass to his second term without serious opposition in his party. This possibility is the most important now in sight. This alone will have influence toward steady and conservative action against any revolution in the general policy of the government, in case there should be a change of executives.