St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-07-26
Facts About CleveIand's Vetoes.
philadelphia Times.1

|
The grounds upon which it is sought to
create prejudice against Governor Cleveland
are his vetoes of the five cent fare bill, the
Mechanics Lien bill and the bill regulating
the hours of labor of drivers and conductors
of horse cars
| The bill fixing the fare on the elevated
railways at five cents abrogated right vest
ed in the corporation by previous 4,gislat-
ure. In that act the regulation of fares was
distinstly surrendered by the
state until the net earnings should reach
given sum. In spite of this agreement in o
the contract the legislature of 1888 passed
bill making a uniform rate of fare five
cents The governor vetoed it on the
ground that the Legislature could not abrogate
vested right There was not the slightest
doubt that the courts of the state would have
taken the same view.
That the proposed reductions were only Of
the slightest interest to workingmen is shown
by the fact that the rate had long been five
cents from half-past five to half-past eight a.
m. and from half past four to half-past seven
D. m. The reduction of fares at other hours
in the day was a manifest advantage to
bankers brokers, business men and amuse-
ment seekers, but not of the smallest inter
est to laboriDg men and mechanics, who al
ready had the privileges the vetoed bill con-
ferred. Opposition to the veto was short
lived, and feeling of satisfaction followed
that one man had been found who had the
pluck and the intelligence to oppose such fu-
tile legislation even at the risk of mourning
popular disapproval.
The Governor also interposed his veto to
the Mechanics Lien bill. The original in
tention of this bill was to give mechanics
| r. +ba;, hT-t ha of
liens. But it was so amended that its pur-
pose was either obscured or lost. 1t gave
parties four months after performance Of
work or furnishing of material to file lien,
a period ridiculuosly prolonged 1t also al
lowed the same costs as in foreclosures,
which in the case of small bills would have
been so onerous as to eat them up entirely.
But, worst of all, it repealed existing me-
chantics lien laws which were far more fav-
orable to the working people than the new
law. 1t was found to be a scheme to make
increased lawyers bills and to diminish the
protection afforded the mechanic. The Gov
ernor very properly accepted the lesser evil
and vetoed the defective bill.
| The bill making twelve hours days work
for conductors and drivers on street cars did
not in any way prohibit the making of a
contract requiring any number of hours
work and if it had the governor very aptly
| objected that it was an interference with the
rights of the employees as well as employers.
1t was plain that if the car drivers and con-
ductors worked fewer hours they would re-
ceive less pay, and the bill neither did nor
could prevent that The Governor conclud-
ed his objections by saying: II cannot
think that this bill is in the interest Of the
workin gmen."
One charge remains against Governor
Cleveland's vetoes. The last legislature
made a small appropriation for char
liable institution known as the Westchester
Catholic Protectory. The governor struck it
out, and the charge has been made that
he was hostile to the Catholic church as
such. Mr. Henery L. Hoguet, president Of
the protectory, says on this question:
We never doubted the sincerity of the
motive which induced Governor Cleveland
to Withhold his signature to the appropriation
to the Protectory. We thought then and
think now that he was not actuated by any
feeling of bigotry or of hostility to the Cath
olcs or the Catholic institutions. On the
contrary, Governor Cleveland is liberal in
the extreme, and we are of the firm belief
that he was led to the Withholding his approx
al of the appropriation solely by a serse of
public duty as he viewed it.
Upon these facts are based ali the charges
made against Governor Cleveland, by which
it is sought to raise objection to him among
the laboring and religious clemens.