The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-02-14
DENUNo1AT1oN OF PUBLIC MEN.

/ Commenting on the De LONE incident.
the Baltimore Sun says:
Without undertaking to underesti-
mate the magnitude of Minister de
/ Lome's offense, it is probable that those
1 who will most vigorously denounce his
/ allusion to the president have them
selves been guilty of applying phrases
equally as insulting to Mr.. Mckinley or
10 his distinguished predecessor. When
Mr.. Cleveland was the chief executive
of the nation he was denounced in con-
gress and by the opposition press in
terms compared with which the phrases
attributed to the Spanish minister are
mild and inoffenSive. Since Mr.. Mchln-
ley has been in the White House he
has had similar experience. Scarcely
a day passes in which the advocates OF
the recognition of the Cuban insurgents
do not attack him in the language OF
bitter denunciation. while those who
are at odds with him on the financial
issue employ tie vocabulary of abuse
on every possible occasion. Only few
weeks ago an Ohio politician tele-
graphed a message to the president ac-
cusing him of bribery in the election OF
a senator
For the benefit of those who do not
understand our customs and methods
it ought to be stated that we reserve to
ourselves exclusively the right to abuse
our public officials, from president
down. The right of denunciatiOn, which
we claim and use unstintedly, is not
transferable, and woe be unto the di-
plomat who thinks otherwise.
The privilege of insulting the presi
dent is a national perogative which we
do not share with the representatives
of the inferior civilization of Europe. If
Minister de LONE has not mastered this
fundamental principle of true and I'M
adulterated Americanism he has not
used his powers of observation as wise
ly as he should. and will have only him
self to blame for his recall. There was
no necessity for him to write a letter.
He could have found more vigorous
phrases and an unlimited supply of
them in almost any copy of the Con-
gressional Record published since
March 4 last, and he could have kept
Senior Canalejas and the Sagasta MN
istry busy for months finding out on
American authority how bad a man
even so honorable and conscientious
president as Mr.. Mckinley can be rep
resented to be by his political oppo-
nents.
No doubt the president of the United
States is spoken OF by some of the
American people in terms quite as
harsh if not harsher than those used by
Senior de LONE in his letter to Senior
Canalejos, but the American people are
not foreign representatives accredited
to this government. No question but
that American politics would be greatly
improved if there We're more genuine
criticism of public men and their acts
and less denunciation of them; just
how bad our shortcomings are in this
regard we do not realize until some one
who is not of US picks up our methods
of political criticism or denunciation,
whichever it may be called, and APP
plies them to US; it is then that we
particularly see ourselves as others see
US.
The Sun says that the privilege of in
sulting the president of the United
States is a national prerogative which
we do not share with the represent
atives of the inferior civilization of Eu-
rope. That is an extreme way of put
ting the case, but it is not without
foundation. One great trouble is that
there is more or less of a popular idea
that to be earnest and carry conviction
one must go to the extremes of Ian
gGage. 1t is a false idea and the put
ting of it in practice results in many
charges and accusations that the
slightest examination of shows to be
absurd and without foundation.
What our politics need is more mod
Grafton and conservatism. If half what
adherents of one party says about the
other were tTIIe neither would be fit tn
public affairs, in fact would
be fit for little else than the peniten-
tiary. Gradually there will be improve
ment in our political methods, and the
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