or me, the danger coming partly because the
men who may be candidates are very anxious that the ticket shall be
strengthened and care nothing for the fate of the man who strengthens
it, and partly because there is a good deal of honest feeling for me
among plain simple people who wish leadership, but who will not
accept leadership unless they believe it to be sincere, fearless, and
intelligent. I most emphatically do not wish the nomination. Personally
I should regard it as a calamity to be nominated. In the first place, I
might very possibly be beaten, and in the next place, even if elected I
should be confronted with almost impossible conditions out of which to
make good results. In the tariff, for instance, I would have to face
the fact that men would keep comparing what I did, not with what the
Democrats would or could have done but with an ideal, or rather with a
multitude of entirely separate and really incompatible ideals. I am
not a candidate, I will never be a candidate; but I have to tell the
La Follette men and the Taft men that while I am absolutely sincere in
saying that I am not a candidate and do not wish the nomination, yet
that I do not feel it would be right or proper for me to say that under
no circumstances would I accept it if it came; because, while wildly
improbable, it is yet possible that there might be a public demand which
would present the matter to me in the light of a duty which I could not
shirk. In other words, while I emphatically do not want office, and have
not the slightest idea that any demand for me will come, yet if there
were a real public demand that in the public interest I should do a
given job, it MIGHT be that I would not feel like flinching from the
task. However, this is all in the air, and I do not for one moment
believe that it will be necessary for me even to consider the matter. As
for the Democrats, they have their troubles too. Wilson, although still
the strongest man the Democrats could nominate, is much weaker than he
was. He has given a good many people a feeling that he is very ambitious
and not entirely sincere, and his demand for the Carnegie pension
created an unpleasant impression. Harmon is a good old solid Democrat,
with the standards of political and commercial morality of twenty years
ago, who would be eagerly welcomed by all the conservative crowd. Champ
Clark is a good fellow, but impossible as President.

"I think a good deal will depend upon what this C