Roosevelt’s Secret Indorsement: The President vs. The Railroad Barons

A Tacoma dispatch to the Portland Telegram says: President Theodore Roosevelt has indorsed Governor McBride for another term as Governor of the state of Washington. This fact so far is but little known because persons who were present when the president made the statement of indorsement had made every effort to keep it quiet because of their personal and political hatred of the chief executive of the state of Washington.

It is perhaps the only indorsement of the kind the president of the United States has ever made and at this particular time, when a certain clique of politicians are making such a fight on the governor, it is very significant.

The indorsement was made last Friday night at a banquet held in Tacoma, which was attended by the president and a half dozen prominent officials and citizens, among them being United States Senators Ankeny and Foster, Congressman Humphrey and Cushman and ex-Senator John L. Wilson.

Every one of these men, except Cushman, begged President Roosevelt to say nothing about McBride. They represented to him that if he did so, it would mean the president's political doom in the state of Washington. But Roosevelt could not be changed, and when the time came for him to speak he referred to the administration of McBride as a most excellent one, and spoke especially of the good work he had done in the fight to defeat the railroad merger.

That was the blow that almost killed Foster, Ankeny and Cushman. They had suspected that the president would say something along these lines, and he did that very thing. He even did more. He said that Governor McBride ought to be returned to the office again, and that he certainly indorsed the present administration, and hoped that McBride would hold the office another term.

There was a suppressed feeling of indignation on the faces of Ankeny and his railroad followers when the fatal words of the president of the United States were spoken. The rest of the banquet was unpleasant to them. They stayed it out however, but after it was all over they held a meeting of indignation, at which time certain things were said and pledges made that perhaps will never be known.

To the politicians of the Pacific Coast the cause of the ill-feeling of Senators Foster and Ankeny toward McBride is the great fight the governor made for the appointment of a railroad commission. It started from the forming of the Northern Securities company. President Roosevelt took an important step when he instructed his attorney-general to proceed against the mighty trust. He did proceed and he won his point.

Governor McBride wanted to prepare to handle the big trust when it came his way. He worked for the appointment of a railroad commission. Harold Preston, candidate of Seattle for the United States senate, and pledged to support a commission bill, was backed by Governor McBride. The governor worked with all his might for Preston.

Ankeny is said to have made the open statement that President Roosevelt would not dare to come to the state he represented and make an indorsement of his personal as well as his political enemy, Governor McBride. But Roosevelt showed his independence. In the face of the opposition of two United States senators and a congressman, he unhesitatingly pledged the governor his best wishes and his hearty indorsement of all he had done.

It only widens the breach in the republican party in the state of Washington, and the democrats are in great glee.