The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1885-12-10
THE PRESIDENTS REcoMMENDA-
TONS,

Ii the country was expecting the President
to develop in his annual message some new
policy it has been disappointed There is
hardly an important recommendation in it
from beginning to end but has been made by
at least one, and in many cases by several, of
his Republican predecessors. There is
scarcely a line in it that might not
have been written by Republican
President without doing violence to
any of the principles or acts of the Re-
publican party. The President takes a de-
cided stand for a sound currency. For years
the Republican party maintained this atti-
tude in the face of the combined opposition
of the Democratic and Greenback parties,
and to-day the President must rely very
largely on Republican votes to give effect to
his ideas in relation to the silver coinage
The very law in which the President sees so
much danger to the financial and business
prosperity of the nation bears the name of
prominent Democratic member of the pres
ent House, whose notions of finance and cur
rency areas heretical to-day as they were the
DAY the Bland dollar was first coined at the
mint. One year ago President Cleveland ap-
pealed to the House of Representatives, CON
tanning seventy Democratic majority, to
allow him to suspend the coinage of silver
if it should appear that the interests of the
country demanded it, and its answer was a
refusal. The policy, therefore, that the
President advocates in regard to our cur
rency is in direct opposition to the policy of
his party as eXpressed,in its acts.
The President processes firm belief in
civil service reform. But in the practice of
his belief he has found himself from the day
Of his inaugural strenuously opposed by the
bulk of his own party. Whenever he has
succeeded it has been only after bitter
fight with that party, and whenever he
has failed reformers have always explained
that failure was due to false information fur
nished by its members or to pressure
too powerful for him to successfully resist.
Nobody who has listened to the
denunciations heaped upon the President in
private by members of his own party on ac
count of his slowness in removing Republi-
can officials to make room for Democrats can
for moment doubt that on the question of
civil service reform he is long way in adj
vance of the great mass of the Democracy.
The President vigorously urges the build
VI navy II navy WOulu nave D66H Dullb
long ago, but for the opposition of Demo-
Gratis in the House of Representatives. Re-
publican Presidents for many years have
pressed the subject upon the attention of
Congress, but the Democrats have gener-
ally succeeded on one pretext and another in
staving off action
Even the Presidents minor recommends
tons are simply repetitions of recommends
tons made by Republican Presidents. Presi-
dent Arthur advocated the payment of fixed
saleries to district attorneys and United
States marshals. He recommended that con-
sular fees be paid into the treasury. and that
consuls be paid fixed salaries Way back
when Gen. Grant was President recommen-
dations in regard to naturalization and ex-
patriation similar to those of President Cleye-
land were made to Congress. There is GER
tainly nothing new in his Indian policy,
neither is he more decided in the opinion
that the foul stain of polygamy should be
wiped out than Republican Presidents have
been.
These facts are pointed out not for the
purpose Of disparaging the Presidents mes
sage, but to show how false were the asser-
tions Of Democratic orators on the stump,
that abuses were persistently covered up by
Republican administrations and that with
the advent. Of a Democratic President