The record-union., 1898-08-06
AN UNDESERVED CRITICISM.

The Los Angeles Herald is so in
grained with the doctrine that the par
tisan Democrat must oppose whatever
a Republican President does that it is
unable to find sincerity or wisdom in
the action of President Mckinley in
the matter of the disposal of the Phil
ippines Hear it:
In his understood purpose of chifting
to the shoulders of a high joint Conn
mission the responsibility for determin-
ing the Philippine questionable most
intricate Of all problems connected with
the peace negotiations-the President
has given new evidence of his political
finesse The last analysis will of course
be made by the Senate, but the Presi-
dent will take both the credit and the
blame for the treaty, and he seems to
be quite willing to minimize both the
rewards and the punishments. AS con-
scious as any one could be of the perils
inseparable from the policy of retaining
the distant islands, he is yet we'll ad-
vised that a preponderance of Repub-
licans favor it, and he shrewdly calcu-
lates that by handing the matter over
to a Commission he will avoid any fric-
tion with partisan leaders and at the
same time save his administration from
the blame for a false step.
Where is it understood" BY whom
What is the authority for this slur un-
der the transparent mask of commend
alton, upon an Executive who through
all the trying hours of the last few
he hac h al eli
calmly, never once losing his head,
never for a moment becoming nervous
or hysterical, though beset on all sides
by annoyances and opposition, to say
advisers who thought they knew better
than he how to steer the ship of State.
President Mckinley has, if the report
of the details of our terms to Spain is
of the Philippine question to the future
and a Commission, because he be-
lieves that TO be the wisest course, be-
cause it will enable the nation the
from the death-dealing malarial low
lands Of Cuba; because it will enable
US the sooner to cut down the enormous
expense Of S1.0O0,000 a day to which
the nation is now put to conduct the
war
The Administration has done this for
the very excellent reason that the ma
ton does not as yet know its own mind
ppop thic PbiliDr,ioa ouaStiOp TT xvan re
days and weeks, and, perhaps, months,
to consider it, in the calm Of peace. To
prosecute hostilities pending adjust
ment Of this difficult question, when the
war can be concluded as we'll prior to
solving the riddle, would have been in
human and objectionable. The charge
of the Herald" is little short of scurri-
lous. 1t imputes cowardice and the
shifting of the ward politician and the
political thimblerigger to an Executive
who has demonstrated capacity to oc-
cupy the judicial attitude, and even to
antagonize the men of his own party,
when he believed their judgment to be
error. AS for instance, when he with
stood the clamor for the recognition Of
the belligerency of the Cuban insur-
gents. Again when he resolutely re-
fused to advise the recognition of the
independence of the Cuban republic.
Again when he stood unmoved, cool
and resolute against the shout "On
to Cuba" when we were not prepared
to move on to the county line-and so
on. throughout the whole business The
President has proved to the world that
he is a patriotic, cool, collected and sin
cere man, placing country before party,
sonal ambitions.