The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1895-02-23
PROVO CITY.
THEPREsIDENT AND BONDS.

The late arbitrary and unwarranted
action of the president in regard to the
last issuance of bonds and their sale to
the bankers both of New York and
Europe, should not be passed unnoticed
by the people. 1t is true the transac-
tionshas been noted, bat not in a formal
way. Just why he should have sold |
the bonds at the price and upon the |
terms he secured is a very mysterious |
affair. If any other officer of the gov
ernment had made such deal, he |
would have been called to speedy &C.
counting for the act, and we do not see
why the president ought not TO answer
as well as any other servant of the peo-
pie. OF course we do not mean that
Mr.. Cleveland should have peddled
these bonds ABOUT seeking for the best
price obtainable, but there are officers
of the government whose duty it is to
see that the best price obtainable was
secured. Bonds sold at 10411a which were
eagerly sought after next day at 1l24
and every day since, indicates some
thing and we fear that something is not
at all to the credit of the American
government or some one of its agents
or officers. Efforts should be made to
thoroughly sift this most remarkable
deal to the bottom, and if wrong has
been done, which now seems perfectly
evident, let blame attach where it will
and let whoever may be involved be
punished and punished severely. If
the sale of gold bonds has been made
simply as another effort to flank the
law which provides that the bonds
shall be paid in coin instead of gold,
then the affair becomes far more repre-
hensible as an awkward attempt to
juggle the gold standard upon the ma
tion without its knowledge and con-
sent.
We, democratic and all as we ere,
regretfully attach to this act of
a democratic national administra-
tion the severest blame, but with
all that, democrats dare not be
silent when such attempts have been
made, no matter by whom. We can
no longer avoid the conclusion that
Mr.. Cleveland is acting with the gold
spectators to place this nation upon q
gold basis regardless of the conse-
quences, and in his determination to do
so, and in face Of the developments in
congress as to the temper of that body,
as well as the people of the nation
generally, against the policy. The
effort to do this should be met in way
that would teach all future presidents
that they must not deal with the people
in any such way. Mr.. Cleveland may
have passed his word to the effect that
at the very least he would issue $162,-
100000 more gold caring bonds, but is
that any good or sufficient reason why
the people should ratitY the un-
derstanding. Congress should have
called the transaction in question i'm
mediately and let the blame fall where
it belonged. 1t was robbery and the
robbers should be punished even at
this late day.
This matter will be- more talked of
and more bitterly condemned ten years
from today than it is now. Faces
will burn and men will blush that
an American who has filed so large a
space in the public regard and who
has been SO honored, could find it in
his heart TO thus sell out the very men
who have stood by his side so loyalty
through both evil as well as good re-
port. 1t is a sad. sad affair, and it
marks a decaQence in the public NOR
ais which makes good men everywhere
shudder for the undeveloped future.
Is it any wonder that Vest, when he
understood it all, declared that he had
come to the parting of the ways with
the president? The whole country, in
Guiding the democratic party, has also
arrived at the parting of the ways
with Mr.. Cleveland. The party can
not and will not tie itself down to this
miserable policy. Should it do SO, 1t
would be beaten for all time, and it
ought to be.