Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1896-07-02
pATgnNALIsM SCORED
Grover Makes 1t an objection to the
River and HarbOr BILL

Grover Makes 1t an Objection to the
River and HarbOr Bill.
Cleveland is not friendly to paternal-
ism-Of certain kinds. He winds up
his message vetoing the river and har-
Dor bill by scoring the kind he does not
like. His views upon the kind of pa
ternalism which he does not like have
been public property ever since he We
toed bill enacted by congress grant
ing national assistance to certain
drought-stricken Texas farmers during
his first term of office He takes occa-
sion in his latest veto. that of the river
and harbor bill, to reiterate the fear
expressed in former yetoes. that the
people are in danger of sinking that
manly self-reliance, which has ever
been characteristic of the American
citizens and for which their valiant
pioneer ancestors were peculiarly
noted in weak paternalism, which
will cause the ignoramuses to look
more and more to their government
as means OF support rather than as
gigantic machine to be supported by
them in the interest of the few intelli-
gent, highly educated gentlemen, who
know how to engineer trusts gold syn
dicates, etc
1t is not pretended that this is his
exact language, but that, all things
considered, it might have been. 1t is
notorious that The thousands of mil
lionah IS who have sprung into full
financial bloom in this country within
the last thirty years, like toadstoOls, or
mushrooms. in a night, have gained
their wealth through government fa>
vors and franchises and privileges
granted to them by our national state
or municipal governments, and that
their fortunes are, therefore, the direct
result of governmental paternalism.
Mr. Cleveland himself, although a COM
paratiyely poor man when elected to
the presidency, is now ranked with
millionaires. and his wealth, since it
has plainly been acquired through his
connection with the chief magistracy,
Is evidence that he has not hesitated
to avail himself of the "paternalistic"
privileges which he is at so much pains
to exhibit in a disparaging light in
connection with our poorer citizens.
The kind of 'paternalism" which en-
ables Pierrepont Morgan to gather in
millions of dollars as the result of one
deal with the government, or which
blanCiy smiles its approval while John
d. Rockefeller so uses his government
given privileges as to rob the ignorant
masses of millions of wealth, or which
hopelessly folds its hands in the pres
ence Of one of its own creatures, the
worlds greatest conspirator and most
muniticent bribe-giver, Coils P. Hunt
ington, OF which points with pride to
the career of John Sherman who, in the
course Of forty years of office-holding,
has accumulated more wealth than a
thousand laboring men could earn in
lifetime of a hundred years-this kind
of paternalism meets with no disfaVor
at the hands of Grover Cleveland. But
it is this kind of paternalism, the kind
which fattens upon the slowly Tapped
life blood of helpless women and little
children, whose wine of life is the
heart-wrung tears of suffering human
ity, whose father is the devil and
whose home is in hell-it is this kind
OF paternalism that the fates have de-
creed must forever pass from the face
Of the earth at no distant day.