Roosevelt's mind works with marvellous quickness. Comment has been made time after time by men who have just met him upon this feature. His brain seems to jump ahead of the conversation, almost di-ing what is to come, and a decision is frequently given hefore, the question has been completed. In the same way he absorbs information and he has set himself with all the vigour and determination of his, nature to learn the details of the government business from the heads that constitute his Cabinet.
His Policy with the South He has already defined " policy towards the South that is new and striking. He proposes, he says, to make such federal appointments there as he is called upon to make of men who are "capable, honest and have the confidence of the communities in which they live." The South has suffered in this matter through the almost unbroken tenure of office of the Republican party since the Civil War. It was the Republican party which gave them votes. It was natural then that the black man should have been practically a unit in support of the Republican party at the polls. It was as inevitable that the white men of the South—ex-Confederates, cxslave owners and leaders in social life—should be united as adherents of the Democratic party. The conditions then begun have existed with little change down to the present time. The South has been so unanimous in its support of the Democrat-ie party that it has long been known as the "solid South" and reckoned with as such. The votes of the white men when counted, either rightly or wrongly, have far outnumbered those of the blacks. The Republican party could only hope by a slow growth to build up an opposition among the black voters that would eventually force recognition. Through all these years the South has been distinctly an agricultural region, but. well within the last decade manufactures have crept in and have found prosperity there. Conditions began to be not much dissimilar to those of the North and East. The Spanish war came on, was fought to a decisive victory and served to confirm again the actual union of the South with the other sections. The coling of the leaders of the South on the chief questions before the country came to be much like those of their northern brothers. Only the fact that the blacks were still Republicans and received Republican protection kept the whites voting the Democratic ticket.
Democratic Appointments, Now Roosevelt says that i he cannot find a Republican qualified in ability and integrity to perform the duties of the fed~ eral office and a man who has the confidence of his community, he will appoint a Democrat. He has made his word good al~ ready in the naming of ex-Governor Jones of Alabama as a Judge in the Federal Dis trict Court. He has a second time made his word good by ignoring the recommend-ion of the so-called Republican State ganisation of South Carolina and by ape pointing a man.whom it bad opposed.
Principle the best Policy.
From the standpoint of principle which undoubtedly is the single thing in Roosevelt's mind, this course can receive nothing but praise. From the standpoint of party policy, too, it has its merits. The Repub= lican party in the South has been but another name for organisations whose chief objects are the allotment of the spoils of office which would naturally flow from a Republican national administration. Haying in the national nominating conventions a power of numbers entirely out of pro portion to the Republican' votes they would represent on election day, they have constituted a difficult problem to reckon with. A comparatively large percentage could be bought to vote for any candidate and their presence and participation work for demoralization.
Encouraged, now, by Presidental recognition and encouraged more by Presidential Jisavowal of the present Southern Republican leaders, the better class of Southern men may find it in the near future, socially as well as politically, possible and desirable to enroll themselves Republicans.
AHigh Standard to be maintained.
Roosevelt has served notice, as well, on northern Republicans that while ho will give ear to the recommendations of the representatives of the States in Congress, yet the men recommended must come up to high standard of capability and honesty.
President McKinley's Estate.
The inventory of the late President Mc-Kinley's estate shows that Mrs inlay is assured of a comfortable income for life.
Including life insurance the estate figures up about $150,000. Congress will" undoubtedly wrant her an annual pension of $5,000 for life, in accordance with the precedent set in the cases of Mrs. Grant and Mrs. Garfield. Altogether it is probable that she will have about $13,000 a ye: It is significant of President McKinley's scrupulous regard for honesty that almost all the money he left was in each, deposited in banks. He had refused to invest it in stocks of any company o7 even in govern. ment bonds lest he should be charged with accepting the unusual opportunities for investment which his position and his official knowledge would give.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.