The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-01-15

Washington dispatches to THE HERALD, in
referring to the aspirations of President
HARRISON for denomination, and the efforts
he Is making to secure it, said:
President HARRISON is devoting all his ener-
gies to securing denomination. With BLAINE
out Of the way, as he undoubtedly will be, the
President believes that he has plain sailing.
He fired his first gun yesterday by discharging
a lot of anti HARRISON officials in the Phladel-
phia internal revenue office. These will be fol-
lowed by others in various parts of the country
and the official axe will be kept busy from now
on. He sent for Chairman CLARKSoN several
days ago, and the two were closeted for an hour
in the Presidents private Office in the White
House. There is no longer any doubt that the
President has control of the Republican ma
tional committee through Mr.. GARRISON.
With this at his back and the immense federal
patronage excited in his favor, President HAIR
RlsoN has certainly a long lead over all COM
petitors in the presidential race,
We think such thing as this deplorable;
a spectacle undignifed and unbecoming in
the president of great nation. 1t is all
one man can do, whatever his abilities or
capacity for work, to attend to the duties
of President of the United States, and
when he joins in the general scramble of
the next presidential race, he does so to
the neglect of some share of his duty as
President; he certainly degrades himself
and the high position to which he has been
elected, and is very apt to draw upon him
self the suspicion that he uses the patron
age at his disposal to further his personal
interest-a charge bordering very closely
onto one of bribery.
No F,;r IA
in Office for his first term, than he begins,
if ambitious, to lay the plans for securing
second; and let man be as Incorruptible
as we may reasonably hope to see men, yet
the wish to obtain second term will in
fiuence more or less all his acts of admin
istration, more especially those that relate
to the distribution Of federal patronage.
During the present administration the one
thing more than all others that has met
with censure has been the favoritism
shown in presidential appointments, by
which it has been clearly seen that Presi-
dent HARRISON is determined to make him
self secure for denomination as far as fed
eral patronage can influence that matter.
| We not only deplore this great evil, but
we think it can be cured. Let the posi-
bility of second term for President be
swept away, by constitutional amendment
providing that no person. shall be eligible to
the office of President for more than one
term. If such an amendment were adopted,
man elected to that high Office would
give his undivided attenti ton to the duties
thereof, and would be prepared to do better
administrative work than now; for then
his ambition would be, not to secure
the denomination of his party for second
term, but to make a record as an efficient
and honorable chief executive of the
mightiest nation on earth-a thing worthy
the ambition of any man, and a thing which
would satisfy any reasonable ambition
Under such provision in the constitution
it might be better TO lengthen the Presi
Dental term of Office to six years, that more
time might be given to men and parties il
power to demonstrate the wisdom of theil
policy, or prove its incompetency to NEE
the exigencies of the times.