Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1888-05-26
GOOD PRESIDENTS.

GOOD PRESIDENTS.
Some Of tho Qualifications Which Ch.-
acterize Them - But an Examinatio,,
With u Good-Sized Microscope Does MOI
Reveal Them in Grover Cleveland.
The friends and supporters of President
Cleveland are in the constant habit of has
ing his claim to reelection upon the broad
and comprehensive assertion that he has
made good President. When requested
to particularize, and to specify in what re-
spect he is especially entitled to the distinc-
ton of being called a good President, they are
somewhat at a loss for an answer but fire.
quently make iteration take the place of
reason, and assert with renewed earnest
ness that Cleveland has made good Presi.
dent.
Without attempting to furnish an ex-
haustlve definition to what constitutes a
good President, we think, says the San
Francisco Chronicle, that it will be generally
agreed that to be a good President the
Chief Magistrate of the Nation must, at the
commencement Of his official career, ADOPT
sound and wise policy, founded on the
wants of the Nation and adjusted as nearly
as possible to the diversified interests of the
American people land having marked out his
course, he must adhere to it, unless there
shall be some overwhelming popular de.
mand, based on reason, for a change OF
policy. Honesty, efficiency, consistency,
and tirmness of purpose, accompanied by de
votion to the public interests and a sub
jugation of his personal wishes and feel.
lngs, must be the characteristics of good
President; and tested by this touchstone,
we deny explicitly that Grover Cleveland
has been good President.
Mr.. Cleveland, in accordance with estab-
lished custom, announced his policy in his
inaugural address, delivered on the 4th of
March, 1855, now more than three years ago.
In that address he made certain declarations
and promises by which the people had a
right to consider him as bound. In view of his
Presidential career, 1t is but right to re-
view those promises; and if he has not kept
them, there being no reason except his indi-
vidual will to account for his breaking them,
his violation of those pledges must certainly
initiate against his claim of having been a
good President
Among other things, Mr.. Cleveland said ::
"a due regard for the interests and pros
perity of all the people demands that our
finances shall be established upon such a
sound and sensible basis as shall secure the
safety and confidence of business interests
and make the wages of labor sure and
steady; and that our system of revenue
shall be so adjusted as to relieve the people
from unnecessary taxation, having due re-
gard to the interests of capital invested
and working men employed in American in
dustries, and preventing the accumulation
of a surplus IN the Treasury to tempt ex-
travagance and waste.
A little further along he took up another
topic, saying:
"The people demand reform in the ad-
ministration of the Government, and the
application Of business principles to public
s1fairs. As means to this end, Civil
Service reform should be in good faith in
dorsed. Our citizens have the right to pro.
lection from the incompetency of public
employees, who hold their places solely as
the reward of partisan service, and from
the corrupting influence of those who
promise, and the vicious methods of those
VINO expect such rewards; and those who
worthily seek public employment have the
right to insist that merit and competency
shall be recognized, instead of party sub
serviency, or the surrender of honest polit-
ical belief"
In this inaugural there is not word
about the payment of the National debt;
but it may be included in the first para
graph cited, in reference to the National
finances.
These, then, were Mr. Cleveland's prom
ises, and this is the outcome of his policy.
How has he fulfilled those pledges, or how
closely has he adhered to the policy mapped
out by himself!
The establishment of our finances upon
sound and sensible basis required the
speedy reduction of the Understanding
National debt. Money was abundant for
that purpose, there was no obstacle in the
way, and yet President Cleveland's Secre-
tary of the Treasury, during the first six
teen months of the Administration, re-
deemed only SIS, 100000 of bonds, as against
an average of SIS, 10000 redeemed by a
Republican Administration every sixteen
months during the preceding four years,
and no progress would have been made
even then had not Republican members OF
Congress driven the Precedent and his Sec
rotary to do their duty.
As to regulation of currency questions,
the premature message of Mr.. Cleveland,
Familiarity known as tho Warner letter, in
dicated that he was controlled by the bond
holders and the Wall-street clique, and that
instead of studying the silver question he
had accepted the dictation of Secretary
Manning and the gold interests which he
represented, and intended to demonetize
silver, if it were possible, and that was his
idea of putting the finances on a sound and
sensible basis.
But what shall be said of his much
Wanted Clvil-Service reform! Can any fair
minded person read the paragraph which is
quoted and not conclude that the retention
in Office of honest and capable public serv-
ants is necessarily involved in the declara-
ton that those who worthily seek public
employment may insist that merit and COM
potency shall be recognized instead Of party
subserviencys Is not the one absolutely the
correlative of the others And yet who can
trace the history Of removals from Office
under the present Administration and find
the faintest trace of an adherence to Cleve-
lands declaration on the subject of Civil
Service reform! A President who between
March 4, 1855, and juno IL, 1887, could
change 10000 out of 50 600 fourth-class post
masters, who could change 1900 out of :, 379
Presidential postmasters, 81 out of IS col