The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-03-16
DIFFERENCE IN ADMINISTRATIONS.
Distinctive characteristics Of the ClevelaI
Era Gone Forever.

Distinctive characteristics Of the Cleveland
Era Gone Forever.
Washington Special TO New York Tribune.
The administration is only week old,
but it has already settled down to bust
ness in fashion which pr omises well for
the future. The government machinery
has fallen into able and not Impractical
hands, and it runs smoothly; one observes
none of the Earring and friction which dis
turbed its movements four years ago.
There was a deal of political kite-fying
then; one sees none of it now. Then the
very air was full of proclamations and
policies" now everything is calm and
serene, despite disquIeting rumors from
Samoa whose foundation, however slender.
seems imposing and substantial as natural
outgrowth of o hating and vacillating. If
not pusillanimous, foreign policy. The era
of kindergarten administration which
began when the American people were
invited through the medium of cartoons
in Democratic newspapers to gaze
on the coatless President or the United
States, as he sat at his desk up to his barred
elbows In business, at 6 o'clock in the morn
ing; when, In obedience to JeffersonIan sim
plicity, Cabinet officers sold spawned
horses and rickety wagons by auction, and
with ostentatious humility went afoot to the
White House; and when the American flag
was dipped In mourning over the coffin of
defaulter and traitor-that era seems to
have ended. The contractors who are build
ing ships for the navy are not now dis
turbed by visions of bankruptcy, raised by
the hostile attitude of a Secretary of the
Navy and Attorney general of the United
States, for they know that good work will
not be condemned at the instigation of
partisan malice or prejudice; neither are the
business and industrial interests of the
country alarmed by uncertainties as
to the future economic policy of
know that the. pledges of the
Republican national platform were hon.
estly made and will be honestly redeemed.
Nobody fears that the Secretary of War
will order the surrender of trophies won by
direct the chief of ordnance to make war
on women and children for opinions sake.
Nobody expects the acknowledgement to
issue confidential circular to Republican
they must use in order to drive postmasters
out of the service. in the name of civil
service reform. Nobody believes that inn
portant places in the diplomatic service will
be filled with men who are under political
tees, or that men will be re-
warded for crimes against the bal
lot-box with appointments to the solicitor
generalship and other high offices. Nobody
Is apprehensive that the official authority
of the Department CT Justice will be used
to promote private matchmaking scheme
in which its head has pecuniary interest.
Nobody fears that warehouses, jails and
other penal institutions will be ransacked
to obtain recruits for the ''army of Office
holders"
OF course the mugwumps exhibit con-
siderable chagrin because the Secretary of
State has not already plunged the country
into war with at least half dozen foreign
nations But that was to be expected. And
yet they are exacting in the extreme; they
ought not to expect a Republican admins
tration to win Immediately such laurels as
Cleveland's did in its war against Mexico
appear to be about the only people who are
really disconnected; they are noisy, but not
numerous.