Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-12-07
THE ORGAN on THE MESSAGE.

THE ORGAN On THE MESSAGE.
1t was partly amusing and partly dis
gushing to read the organs fulsOme
comments and praise of the Presidents
weak and pointless message. Evident
ly our neighbor took time by the fore
lock and wrote it's usual stereotyped
and sickening praise of the document
before it read it. For our contempor-
airy extravagantly praises, although
only in a general way, the Presidents
recommendations" etc, as to our
possessions and foreign relations, when
the fact is the President beyond very
brief and very general reference to
our policy in Cuba, had nothing what
ever to say of his policy or purpose re-
garding the mighty questions growing
out of the recent war with Spain, al
though Congress and the people are
especially interested at this time in
those very things and in learning the
future intentions and policies of the
administration on the all-important
subject, especially with regard to the
Philippines. But on this one matter
of paramount and vital import to the
American people and to Congress the
President had no recommendation to
make-not one-nOr a single policy to
even outline. He miserably begged the
whole question and weakly declined to
accept the responsibility of making the
first move in open advocacy of the
policy which it is notorious has been
forced onto his administration by the
political stock jobbers who control it.
The President fears to take the initia-
tive He would learn the views of Con-
gress first and then embody them in
his subsequent message when he sub
mits the Spanish treaty.
Yet listen to the following fulsome
praise of this miserably weak and
evasive document from the organ of
Fourteenth street:
No more important presidential message
has been sent to Congress in the past
generation than the annual document sub
mitted to Congress yesterday hy Presi
dent Mckinley 1t is important and inter-
eSting because of the vital questions eth
which it deals. of the attendant circum-
stances and of the great number of mat
tiers concerning our foreign and domestic
relations and the accompanying recon-
mendations thereon, which it brings to
the attention of our national legislators
and the people whom they represent.
While the message IS of unusual length.
the character of the subject matters
iustifies that fact for few Presidents have
ment of this nature. The characteristic
conservatism. fairness of expression. logi-
cal reasoning, and wisdom of recommen-
dations which have mark, d the public
papers of the President, prevail in every
paragraph
And now, read the following on the
same message from an honest Repub-
lican paper, which read the message
before commenting on 1.-THE Pitts
burg Dispatch:
The message which President Mckinley
sent to Congress yesterday is most re-
markab bic in what it omits to say. The
absorbing questions to be settled by our
nation at present are those arising out
of the evidences that the President in
tends to depart from the traditional
policy of the nation. and the assertions of
some VINO claim to represent him. that
the principles on which this nation is
founded Will also be abjured. The whole
nation has been expecting that the mes
sage would state the considerations
which have led the President to abandon
the old principle of non-interference out
side of the American continents. and give
some statement of how far along the
path of imperialism he proposes to go
But while the message gives an extended
discussion of the history of the war. and
goes into details of subjects which in
comparison with the main issue are of
routine nature. he declines to take up
the question of imperial policy at all.
The two clippings show the differ
ence between an organ and a news
paper.