The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-01-31
SENATOR T1LLMANs SPEECH.


The speech Of Senator Tillman, of
South Carolina, reported in yesterdays
dispatches, was to say the least of it
remarkable deliverance. It stands
out in sharp contrast to the scholarly
essays usually read in the senate cham
Der, and labeled speeches. The SEN
ator from South Carolina evidently had
the bluntness to call a spade spade.
The roughness of the speech doubtless
grated harshly on the sensitively re-
fined ears of some eastern senators,
noted more for their scholarship than
for plain, common sense. but it is safe
to say that this harshness was not so
disagreeable to them as some of the
unadorned truths uttered by the man
from South Carolina were to the chief
executive of the nation, and his secre-
tary of the treasury.
We may not be able to agree with
all the political views of Senator Till
man, but we are heartily glad that he
delivered his speech. It is time that
public men and the press return to the
plainness Of speech in discussing public
questions that admits no doubt as to
their meaning, and to see to it that
those standing in high places are not
considered above criticism. While it is
right to give honor to whom honor is
due, yet it is we'll to have it remem-
bered that these men in public Office
in our American theory of government
are not the masters of the people, but
their servants; and that official com
duct is a proper subject of criticism.
It appears to be so easy for poor,
weak humanity to look upon men oc-
cupying official position, and discharg-
ing public duties as some how or other
above ordinary mortals, and one of the
sovereign people who has the presump-
ton to take issue with his actions is
looked upon as a sort of rude disturber
of the peace. It is a good thing for
the country that once in a while there
comes from the ranks Of the people a
man in whose nature the spirit of
Democracy is so ingrafned that he as
serts the right of the people to take
to task the men who are unfaithful to
them and untrue to their interests;
and if the very lightning of indigna-
ton flashes through his speech all the
better.
The corrupting influence of official
life in our national capital; the monied
influence that infects it; the isolation
Of our chief national officials from the
plain people; the adulation of syco-
plants who smile and crook the preg-
nant hinges of the knee that thrift
may follow fawning-all this tends to
remove our chief officers further and
ever further from the people until all
too soon they forget their true relation
ship to the soverigns of the country
Sometimes they fall unconsciously
under the influence of the agents Of
special classes and their interests; and
at other times, with full sense of
what they are doing they wickedly be-
tray the people in order to become the
friends of those who may reward them
with the mammon of unrighteousness.
In either event it is well that from the
ranks of the people occasionally some
one speaks out in clear, bold terms to
arouse them from Inconsistencies if
that be their condition. and the cause
of their betrayal of the people; or to
scorch and burn them with invective
if knowingly they are untrue to the
trust imposed in them.
Senator Tinman has rendered a great
public service to the country in taking
to task the chief officials of the ma
ton. 1t was well done. 1t is time
these money changers in the temple Of
government were at least scourged
with small ropes if not driven from the
building; and notice should be served
upon those who expect to succeed them
that the people will tolerate no more
betrayals.