The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-10-31

ture, of personal virtues. but he would ap-
pear to exactly I'll the definition of Mug
wump, "a man educated beyond the linn
its OF his intellect" In his recent speech
in New York city he denounced the Nc
kinney tariff as oppressive. and named as
illustrations sugar and binding Irvine.
Mr.. MacVeagh here illustrated the differ
ence between the loose assertions of "a
man Of culture" like himself, and a man
of exact mind and accurate statement
like John Sherman. Mr.. MacVeagh does
not appear to know that in both the in
stances cited the Mckinley law has re-
duced the duty, for it put sugar on
the free list and it reduced the duty
on binding twine from ~ cents a pound
to seven-tenths of 1 cent. The duty
in both cases is far less than it was when
Mr.. MacVeagh was Republican cabinet
officer unfolding the tariff The price of
both articles has been cut down by the
Mckinley bill. These are scholarly Mr..
MaeVeagh's illustrations of 1.-The oppres-
sion of the tariff" Mr. MacVeagh further
complained that in Pennsylvania ''less
than u per cent. of its laborers can be en-
pioyed in the industries which are said to
be benefited by high duties on imports"
A man of any practical business observa-
ton knows that counting the farmers,
who are dependent upon the immense
home market created and maintained by
protected industries, that the proportion
would be nearer IS per cent. while the
prosperity of the industries directly pro-
tected makes the prosperity of all. Mr..
MacVeagh complains of the lack OF purity
in our politics, and then in order to secure
it offers to help elect candidate whose
election depends today upon the success
of Tammany Hall in the Empire state.
Mr.. Josiah Quincy. of Massachusetts. is
another of these scholars in politics"
who are unfortunate when they deal with
facts and figures. Replying to the charge
that Cleveland signed far fewer special
pension bills than Harrison Mr.. Quincy
says that Lincoln signed but forty-four
and Grant but $50, far fewer than Cleve-
land. The answer is absurd, because il is
only within the last twelve or fifteen years
that the pressure for pensions has in
creased. The liberal legislation of con-
gress beginning with the arrears Of
pension act. and the increasing infirmities
that age has brought to the veterans, has
of course greatly sweled the number of
legitimate and necessitous applicants for
pension. To quote the number Of PEN
sion bills signed by Lincoln and Grant as
less than those signed by Cleveland is as
absurd as it would be to complain that the
number of state and Federal soldiers
homes had increased in number and popu-
lation since the days of Lincoln and
Grant. These Mugwump scholars in
politics" seem to be fuller of ideality than
of facts, for they are remarkable for moth
ing so much as the ceaseless wash of COM
pliment with which they battle the brow
of Grover Cleveland, even as Queen Titania
showered caresses on Bully Bottom.
Mac Veagh and Quincy and DR.. William
Everett denounce the Republican party as
corrupt or controlled by the "spoiis sys-
tenn" and yet continue to hail Cleveland
as the only living hope light and leader of
civil service reform. Intelligent men of
affairs lose all respect for culture when
separated from candor and common sense,
and this incapacity of couture in poll
tics" to appreciate President Harrison:
its eagerness TO crown Cleveland as q re-
former, despite the notorious fact that as
president, in violation of his promises. in
consemp. of all his most solemn and de-
liberate public utterances, he invoked the
1r tn 80
own reelection in 1883, has brought
these political apostles of culture
into chronic contempt with the great
mass of intelligent students of Ameri
can politics. To be a scholar and
yet be as destitute of the vision OF
statesman as a mob; to be scholar and
be unable TO see the truth, or be unwilling
to tell it when you see it; to be scholar
and mistake ponderous, balky political
dray horse, masked in the lions skin of
reform, for genuine reform lion, is TO be a
scholar that is sure TO be distrusted within
or without politics when he presumes TO
lecture the country concerning the present
outlook of what the Mugwump distrust
fully terms the American experiment"
The average Mugwump either knows or
he does not know that Cleveland is an
arrant fraud as civil service reformer,
who has accepted the support of the re-
formers for the sake of transient personal
advantage. in the same spirit with which
whisky-consuming. saloOn-uphol
Democracy fishes for and welcomes the
help Of the Prohibjtionists If these
SCHOLARS in politics" are so dull or so
purblind with prejudice that they can
no, see tina. Cleveland worked the SPOTS
system in 1857 for all il was worth TO re-
elect himself in 1sSs, then their scholar
ship and culture cannot be expected to
ave them from the unconnlimentarv
compassion of their intelligent coun-
trymen. II these SCHOLARS in noli.
tics" do see that Cleveland ia
nothing better than thick-skinned
commonplace demagogUe, who. with the
low cunning characteristic of a coarse
ward caucus leader. has won and abused
the confidence OF the reformer, then their
scholarship and culture will not and ought
not 10 save them from the contempt OF
their fellow countrymen. These "schol-
ars in politics" need TO remember that no
scholarship no culture, will save a man
from the dlstrust Of men of intelligence Ia
public affairs, If they behave like a man
who cannot see because he is a. bigot. or
who would not see because he WAS sub