use
stands. If I had been killed the fight would have gone on exactly
the same. Gov. Johnson, Senator Beveridge, Mr. Straus, Senator
Bristow, Miss Jane Addams, Giffford Pinchot, Judge Ben Lindsay,
Raymond Robbins, Mr. Prendergast and the hundreds of other men now
on the stump are preaching the doctrine that I have been preaching
and stand for, and represent just the same cause. They would have
continued the fight in exactly the same way if I had been killed,
and they are continuing it in just the same way now that I am for
the moment laid up.

"So far as my opponents are concerned, whatever could with truth
and propriety have been said against me and my cause before I was
shot can with equal truth and equal propriety be said against me
and it now should be so said, and the things that cannot be said
now, are merely the things that ought not to have been said before.
This is not a contest about any man; it is a contest concerning
principles.

"If my broken rib heals fast enough to relieve my breathing I shall
hope to be able to make one or two speeches yet in this campaign;
in any event, if I am not able to make them the men I have
mentioned above and the hundreds like them will be stating our case
right to the end of the campaign and I trust our opponents will be
stating their case also.

"Theodore Roosevelt."

October 19, Gov. Hiram W. Johnson, of California, candidate for
Vice-President on the National Progressive ticket, was summoned to
Mercy Hospital by Col. Roosevelt.

The governor hastened to the hospital and conferred with Roosevelt for
an hour. The ex-President urged upon Johnson that he return to
California to hold his office as governor. Johnson had two years to
serve of his term and under the law he would forfeit the governorship
if he did not get back. The law there provides that no governor shall
absent himself from office for more than two months running. Johnson
had been away all but a few days of that period.

"Governor, I realize the sacrifice you have made in keeping so long
away from your office," began the colonel, in serious tone. "I am told
that if you do not hurry back they will take the governorship away from
you. Now, I want you to go back. Leave the campaign to me. I can handle
it all right. Soon I'm going out on the stump and I'll lead the fight
myself."

Gov. Johnson marveled at the bold idea