Omaha daily bee., 1885-03-06
CLEyELAND's CABINET.

CLEN GLANDS CABlNbI.
Grover Cleveland cannot be said to be
a success as a cabinet maker. The cabi-
net, that he has constructed, taken as a
whole, is hardly up to the average.
Mr.. Baysrd, secretary of state, is by all
odds the ablest man in the new admins
~trstion, and his appointment will prove
generally satisfactory. He comes CT a
senatorial family, and he has had many
years CT experience as q statesman. Ii
all the other members were the equals of
Bsyard In ability, the cabinet would in
deed be a model, but when such men as
Whitney, Manning and Endicott sur
round him, he appears like q giant among
a LOT of pigmies. Whitney was never
heard of outside of New York city, until
the Standard Oil family of Payne, of
Ohio, urged his appointment to
a cabinet seat. The family spent
over $500 900 In the campaign, and they
therefore thought they were entitled to
at least a cabinet position for one mem
Der Of the family, William Collins Whit
ney, who is a son in-law Of Senator
Payne. Whitney, who Ia usually called
Coal Oil Billy, is only IN ordinary New
York lawyer. His elevation to be secre-
tary of the navy is simply the payment
of a debt to the campaign barrel. He
has had no experience Whatever iu ma
tional affairs, and knows no more about
the navy than a Missouri river catfish
knows about salt water. Dan Manning
Is a New York political boss, and his APP
pointment to the treasury Is due to the
fact that he Is q bosom friend of Cleve-
land, with whom he became intimately
acquainted during Cleveland's governor
ship at Albany. Eudlcott, who becomes
secretary of war, like Whitney, wss
never heard Of outside of his own state
until a few weeks ago. He knows no
more about war than Whitney does about
naval affairs. Lamar Is a man of &C.
knowledged ability, but he is altogether
too friendly to the railroads and the mo-
nopolies to be a safe secretary of the in
t%eyior. Garland Is an able man, and will
probably make an acceptable attorney gen.
eral. Villas, the postmaster general, is a
smart lawyer, whose only recommends.
tion for a cabinet position, 1t seems, is
the fact that he made an eloquent speech
in seconding the nomination of Grover
Cleveland at Chicago. Mr.. Cleveland
seems to have taken special pains
to select men who are known
to be too friendly to the in
terests of monopoly. Whitney Is
connected with the Standard oil COM
pany, the most gigantic and grasping
monopoly in the United States. Villas is
a railroad attorney. Lamar is a friend of
monopoly. Manning Is known to be a
rings.er. Mr.. Cleveland, it seems to us,
has made some very serious mistakes in
his appointments. The selection of two
cabinet members from New York is a
Partially for the empire state that will
not be very acceptable to the rest of the
country, but it may be claimed that Whit
ney ought to be credited to Ohio. -Four
members Of the cabinet are from the east,
two from the south, and only one from
the west, and he Is 80 far northwest that
"the west" may as we'll as be considered
left out in the cold. 1t Is rather surprising
that Mr.. Cleveland should have rejected
such excellent cabinet timber as Allen G.
Thurman or Joe Mcdonald, and other
well known democratic warehouses, and
accepted such inferior, unreliable and I'M
tried material as Whitney, Manning and
Endicott.