bility this confidence imposes upon me, and I shall do all that in my power lies not to forfeit it.

"On the fourth of March next I shall have served three and a half years, and this three and a half years constitutes my first term. The wise custom which limits the President to two terms regards the substance, and not the form. Under no circumstances will I be a candidate for or accept another nomination."

The President's announcement was a great surprise to the public. Probably the tradition against a third term in the Presidency would not have been seriously urged by many persons against a second election for Mr. Roosevelt. By a somewhat forced construction of the tradition, he had chosen to deny himself the two elections by the people, which all successful Presidents have claimed and received. Whatever his motive for this act, it had the effect of lifting him in his new term of office above the suspicion of self-seeking. He had placed himself where no man could threaten him with a loss of future honors, or could doubt that his sole purpose was to serve his country.

"THE SQUARE DEAL"

How President Roosevelt has given it to all. Rescuing the government from the control of incorporated wealth. — His scorn of lawless money-getting. His cautious and resolute attitude toward the big corporations. - Downfall of the great railway merger. Railways and trusts brought into court. Wielding the power of public opinion for the settlement of the Coal Strike, October 15, 1902. Railway magnates refuse when the President asks them to coöperate with him in framing and passing a Regulation Bill. Their defeat. Law enacted, June 29, 1906. - The President's strategy. The meat packers defy him and public opinion forces through the Meat Inspection Law, June 30, 1906. — The Pure Food Law enacted, June 30, 1906.-Locking up United States senators. "This government never shall be a plutocracy."

"THE labor unions shall have a square deal, and the corporations shall have a square deal, and, in addition, all private citizens shall have a square deal."

-THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

To rescue their government from the control of wealth, and to lift the dignity of their nation above the dollar, was the plainest commission which the American people gave Theodore Roosevelt when they elected him to the Presidency. His obligation was to them alone. It had been beyond the power of any

private interest, or of any class, to defeat him. All the world knew what he meant by "the square deal."

When he first entered the White House, he found the government at Washington bound in a close partnership with the wealth of the country, and the government was only a silent partner. Wealth was the controlling member of the firm. It had all come about in a very natural way. There had been a period of hard times a few years before, and, in the midst of it, the campaign of 1896 was fought on the question of restoring prosperity. The rich man was anxious for a full purse, and the poor man for a full dinner pail. Wealth had sided with the Republican party and had poured forth millions in money to elect the Republican candidates, and they won. Thus the partnership began. Prosperity was the only watchword, and the President of the United States was hailed as its advance agent. Every policy was shaped to that one end. The great corporations directed the councils of the party in power, and no

man in those councils ever ventured to question the measures adopted. No one wished to "disturb business." Laws were made and administered