San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-04-03
NOT A PRETTY SIGHT.

There is nothing very edifying tC
the sight in the pie scramble that is
going on at Washington. This admin
istration came into power upon the de-
mand of the people for a change in
the policy and personnel of the govern
ment at Washington. The finances, the
revenues and the foreign policy of the
country were falling into disrepute in
manner that the people would no
longer brook. The reaction set in and
it flooded out of place the most in
competent government that ever &C.
cupied the chair at the National CAPT
tai. There was more than a demand
for the retirement of one party and
the return to authority of another in
that reaction. 1t was a demand for
new methods of government, new poll
cies of action, a higher stamp Of
craftsmanship. 1t was call from the
very highest source, the voice of the
people, for radical revolution at the
seat of government. Not a revolution
by force of arms, but a revolution by
force of legislative reforms, which
could not be expected of the old ad-
ministration upon it's record. That
change came and with it the hopes
of the nation in a sOunder government
one more in line with the declarations
of the fathers and the older policies
of the republic. The president assum-
ed the government and his inaugural
address went TO the heart of the trou-
bic and increased the confidence of
the nation in his wisdom, American
ism, craftsmanship and wise conserv-
atism. He assemblies Congress to put
into force legislation to cure the in
dustrial ills of the country, restore it's
lost credit, recoup its depleted treas
ury, prevent the increase of the public
debt in time of peace and protect the
people on their farms and in their
mills against the encrOachments of
foreign competition enforced by the
low wage scale of the rival produc-
ers of the old world. All matters move
according to program and the peo-
pie grow hopeful. The foreign ap-
pOintments that are made, no less
than the selection of a cabinet con-
strong in every part, increase
the confidence in the wisdom and fl
deity of the president. Foreign pow
ers Immediately show their increased |
respect for the government by plac- |
ing American citizenship on new
plane and regarding the remOnstran-
ces of the state department as to the |
treatment of our citizens. as had not |
been done for years. All this to the |
credit of the incoming administration |
and by so much to the credit of the |
republic. In the midst of it the strange |
spectacle is presented of the most pes |
tiferous assault upon the appointing |
powers for office that the history of |
the country has afforded since the late |
war 1t has paralyzed the cabinet, driv- |
en- the members of Congress to des-
peratiOn, disguised the president and |
filled the country with bitterness and
complaint. There is no remedy for
this. The Republican party must bear
the odium of this insane assault upon
the powers that dispense patronage.
To the credit of the president and his
cabinet it is to be said that they stand
firm against the incoming flood, de-
claring that the several states must
agree upon the offices that they seek
and the parties that are to fill them,
before any attention will be paid to
their demands. In this position they
are sustained by the country. The Re
publican party is not behind these
men who plead for office as for their
lives. If it FASTENED the day when it
should again be in order for the office
to seek the man it might not be all
in vain.