Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-03-19
one Aspect of the New Administra-
ItOns

good humor with General Harrison at
the outset of his administration, and
disposition to accord to him high per-
sonal character, there are some things
that cast quite an evil shadow over his
official cereer. Some weeks ago the New
York World devoted whole page to the
several appearances of Hon. Levi P.
Morton, the Vice-President of the United
States, in the politics of New York. 1t
gave details which seem to prove that
this distinguished gentleman has at dif-
ferent times in the past twelve years
when he first began to figure in practical
politics-reised million and half dol
lars to be used as campaign funds for the
Republican party. There are no legiti- |
mate party necessities which call for such
enormous sums of money. They were
intended to corruptly influence the voter,
and were undoubtedly employed to carry
the close and pivotal State of New York
for Garfield in 1880 and for Harrison in
1888. A portion of this money was also
dedicated to carrying the Empire State
for Blaine in 1884, but the current in
favor of Cleveland proved too strong.
This kind OF thing recalls in striking
way the days of the degenerate Roman
Empire, when the purple itself was put
up at auction to the highest bidder by the
Pretorian guards. The circumstances
are of course different, as a mercenary
soldiery is not yet feature of the Gov
ernment of the United States, but most
, readers of newspapers can recall the
papers written by Col. Thomas A. Scott,
, President of the Pennsylvania Railway,
and others, advocating the increase OF
. the standing army to one hundred thou
sand men. If these people could have
had their way, we might by this time
. have been treated to the Roman spec
: tscle in all its horrors.
Not only does Mr.. Morton occupy his
g exalted position as reward for his siren
e uous efforts in collecting immense cor
e ruption funds, but Mr.. Harrison has
: given leading Cabinet Office to MIR.
q Wanamaker, whose only claim to this
v post rests on his having collected
# $4OO, 900 towards the expenses of the
q Harrison and Morton campaign. Mr..
: Wanamaker has no other ground for this
distinction, never having occupied any
public position and being absolutely in
s experienced in official station. The New
t York World of recent issue, under the
= head of the "Wanamaker Scandal" has
' the following just reflections on this
i peculiar appointment. 1t says:
), The Philadelphia Press, having swal
: lowed all of its past words OF hot denun-
= citation of Matt. Quay, the defiant par
n doner of his convicted brother-bribers in
Pennsylvania, is naturally quite equal to
defending the appointment to Cabinet
office of John Wanamaker, the promoter
8 of bribery in the National election.
i This subservient organ maintains that
Y Mr.. Wanamaker was not appointed Post
& master General merely because he was
active in the campaign" but because it
is "eminently desirable that business
9 men of his type shall be brought into
It political activity, and measurably into
o the public life which naturally goes with
such activity"
Never until Doodle became supreme in
politics was il considered natural to
y boost business man, who never before
J. held public office of any kind, from pri-
: vate life to seat in the Cabinet at one
, bound. There are hundreds of business
8 men, in character and ability quite the
= equal o. Mr.. Wanamaker, who took an
: active part in the campaign. Why WAS
i the only one selected as q member of the
Q Administration the man whose sole dis
= tinction was that he raised the largest
contribution to the campaign fund?
The Pharissic claim is renewed that,
because Mr.. Wanamaker conducts a
Sunday school and does not travel on the
: Sabbath, he would not raise money for
q improper uses. But all that Mr.. Wsna-
maker himself says is that "What did
insist upon was that should be able to
: satisfy the men who trusted me with
their money that it was used for the pur-
poses for which they subscribed it that
is, to carry the election for Harrison
and that guarantee Mr.. Quay gave me-"
"I don't mean," he said, THAT we in
sisted on knowing what was done
with every dollar of it. didn't want to
} know"
! There is no CLOSING over the fact that
( Mr.. Wanamaker was given Cabinet
office as the spoils purveyor OF Boss Quay
and as reward for his services in raising
an enormous corruption fund. And it is
the most scandalous official appointment
IAOOOl0OO Al 1AmOAlOdh AlSLOiys
Most readers of newspapers recall very
well when this new departure WAS made
in American politics. 1t began under
Gen. Grant, and his ill-omened civil
career was handicapped from the start
by his adoption of the principle that the
public trusts of the nation were to be
prostituted into rewards for moneyed
service to the Republican party. Two of
General Grants first acts as President
were to appoint Mr.. A. 7. Stewart, of
New York, as Secretary of the Treasury,
and Mr.. Adolph E. Borie, of Philadel-
phia. as Secretary of the Navy. Before
Mr.. Stewart could enter upon the dis
charge of the duties of his position it was
discovered that statute OF the United
States disqualified him, he being an i'm
porter, and personally interested in the
decisions of that department. Neither of
these gentlemen had ever figured in pub
lie life, and their only claim to the hon.
ors bestowed upon then by Grant lay in
the fact that they had each subscribed
A