Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-07-17
FOR -SELECTEIAN
BOLIVAR. ROBERTS.
NOTHING TO ADMIRE.

Confidence. cannot always be placed in
press dispatches, but nevertheless they
pass current, and like bank notes, while
some may not be genuine the majority
are. The latest one we have seen that is
of interest to all is special to the Tribune
this morning, and tells the story of Mo-
han, of San Francisco who went East last
year and electioneered for Cleveland and
Hendricks, having made in all one hun
dred and fifty-three speeches. 1t is also
said that he pawned his household goods
to raise campaign funds. Such devotion
showed far more zeal than judgment, and
is far more rare than sacrafcing ones
life for ones country. The trouble now
isthat. Mr., ,Moban has greatly. changed
his opinion Of the President, although it
is strange that he should, as the Presi-
dent, has been true to himself, his
pledges and his party. He was
placed in nomination because of his
record as Mayor of Buffalo and as
Governor of New York State. The
J issue ofthe times was. genuine and HON
est reform in the civii-service, for the
country had come to, look with. apprehen-
sion upon the change in the personnel of
officers of the Government every four
years. 1t was beginning to engender the
idea that government by party was m ere
ly a scramble for Office by party. For
such ideas to become universal and
for the citizens to rest their govern
ment upon SO low and base an
idea would have justified the SCOTS
and ieers of the monarchical gov
ernments of Europe, that republics
and freedom were a failure. Party is
simply means and not an end in repre-
sentative government; it is the channel
through which the people express their
ideas as to policies, and whenever a
country reaches such state that to only
one party can be entrusted the reins of
government, that country is fast approach
ing that condition when kings and ty-
rants arise and crush out freedom and
the rights Of the people.
To wrest the reins of government from
the hands of the Republican party and
place them in those of the Democratic
party, Mr., Mohan sacrificed his time and
his means. When he did so itlwas pre-
sumed that he desired above all things
the triumph Of Democracy and the prin-
ciples Of the Chicago Platform that he
thought Grover Cleveland the man to
make these principles triumphant and
to see them made effective if elected.
Has net President Cleveland in every
way justified the confidence that was re-
posed in him, and should not those who
devoted their time and means to secure
his election find their truest reward in the
fact that he has justified what they said
of him? Mr.. Mohan feels aggrieved at
the Presidents treatment of him. The
telegram referred to says that the Presi-
dent told Mr.. Mohan that he would give
him a position in the San Francisco Gus
tom House, for which he was an appli-
cant. The President, it seems, inquired
OF him if he were business man, a very
proper; question to ask man who asks
for place that above all needs business
qualification and tact. 1t is said that
Mr.. Mohan turned red in the face, and
managed to say to the President that he
did not deem 1t necessary to inquire
Of him, when he asked him to stump
New York State, whether he were
business man or not. 1t is probable that
the account is somewhat exaggerated, al
though there is doubtless something in
it. Z Had Mr.. Mohan been an applicant
for a judgeship or an attorneyship it GER
tainlyr would have been a proper thing to
do to ask him if he were a lawyer; or if
he had applied for consulship, to have
asked him if he were conyersant with the
language of the country to which he
wished to 60 And if such questions are
right and proper as to those positions,
why should they not be as to mans
qualifications for a business position? |?
The President may have lost an ardent |
admirer and supporter, but he was true
%. his pledges and the party platform,
and this is Of first and greatest conse-
guence. |