The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-06-26
THE PLANT OF A PAPER.
President Harrison Has Done Moth
ing to Earn the Gratitude
of Friends.
Surrounded by Advisers Who Are
workink Out Selfish Per-
sonal Whims.
Tho Salt Lake Tribune Says Harrison
Should Brace Up and Do His
Duty to the West.

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that he is overwhelmed with the ingratitude
of friends and the importantly of selfish
ofice-seekers, says the Salt Lake Tribune.
The latter of course he expected when he
became president. There is no change of
administration that thousands of men do
not rush to Washington and lay siege to the
white house and departments for appoint
ments. As to the ingratitude of friends, it
is hard to understand what the president
means, because if any one of the west has
seen anv disposition on the part of
the president to earn the gratitude
of friends it is not in this region. For some
reason the president drew around him ad-
they are not actuated half as much by a de-
sire to serve the country faithfully as to
work out certain whims of their own.
That naturally creates in the minds of
men who helped make Mr.. Harrison presi-
dent feeling of indifference, which may
after all is but natural. We know nothing
about his troubles in the east, but We do
know that in the west if he has not mani
tested entire indifference to what the peo-
pie believe is for their best interests, there
is no spoken or written word from him to
show to the contrary: For instance, he
must have known within month after he
was inaugurated that the men of the west
looked upon the silver question as the most
important single question now, pending
before the American people, and yet in his
first formal message to congress he, IN so
many words, stated that he knew very
little about the question; that he had
not had time to investigate it. That
was a Niagara of cold water poured
upon the whole west. and the natural con-
clusion was that if the president was so in
different to question of such Importance,
the chances were ten to one that he was ex-
hausting his time and industry on petty
questions, the decision of which amounted
to very little either way. 1t is not the pres
ident who speaks through the dispatches,
but a friend. He may be mistaken. We
hope he is, because great resolute soul,
elevated to place which secures his name
to all ages to come, ought to feel respon-
pose in fulfilling the duties of his position,
which should take from him any serious
thoughts of whether what he was doing was
being appreciated by the people or not.
Never was president assailed as was Pres
ident Lincoln. The very bitterness of
striving by his single brain to lift his country
out of the perils that environed it, while pro-
viding against attacks of furious armies
intent upon the destruction of the republic.
he was assailed in the rear by partisan enc
mics; His wisdom, his courage and his
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san friends, and yet, under all this. his face
beamed kindly and no word of reproach or
of despair ever issued from his lips. He
was great enough to know that justice
would be done by and by, and time has
fully INDICATED him. He stands in niche
in the temple of fame beside Washington,
the halo that is growing over his memory is
growing brighter and brighter with every
succeeding year, and all the abrasion Of
time will never wear away one living tint
from that halo. President Harrison
should rouse himself from his ft of
indigestion; he should keep in
mind that he fills the place that
was filed before him by Washington and
Lincoln, and that no arraignment BY malic-
ious foes or envious friends can ever possi-
bly, outlast just act, or throw any lasting
reproach upon just administration. The
place of president is most perplexing
one. The various contending interests Of
the republic all center in confusion around
a chief magistrate, and yet the government
of the nation is only, on a large scale, the
handling of great business, and what
would be right in business is right in gov
eminent. The president, to use q western
phrase, should ''brace up'' and resolve sim
ply to try to perform his duty and not to be
worried if, in the performance of that duty,
some men should not be satisfied, and if
ungenerous and ungrateful men should find
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