The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-06
4 GOOD IHING q.

There isn't the slightest doubt that
 many thousands of people will say yea
 emphatically to the proposition referred
 to below, and very appropriately, by | Frank Leslies Weekly, for a change of
 the national inauguration day to a day
 later in the season, when the weather
 is warmer and there is less danger of
 getting a terrible cold or a fatal at | that a great many people have died from pneumonia contracted while att | tending inauguration at Washington. | Then, too, outside of the serious as- poets, the season at Washington, March is usually vastly uncomfortable. The Second Connecticut regiment boys among us who went to Washington from New Haven under the late Colonel s. R. Smith to attend the inauguration of General Grant remember that the weather then was something fierce" On the road to Washington the rail- roads were choked with trains going to the capital, so that there were long halts and delays, and the soldiers, their f1rewood on the cars being exhausted, were obliged to tear down long stretches of the farm fences at places where their trains were stalled in order to keep the fires going and keep from freezing When, too, the cars arrived about a mile from Washington and another long delay was announced, the troops hustled out and marched to the city in the teeth of cold March wind, which was blowing a gale and cutting to the very bone. This was Washington weather then, and this is usually inauguration weather Frank Leslie's says:
 Sentiment in favor of change of inauguration day at Washington from March to a date few weeks later has found expression in many quarters at various times. the expression being most general and emphatic in the days immediately following an inauguration, when the suffering and inconvenience usually attendant upon the perform ance of the ceremonies in early March weather are most keenly realized. But 1t has remained for the committee hay ing charge of the last inaugural to take ha Arot o,,6 efn t1 h,,t,, the desired change. This they have done by presenting a resolution to the commissioners of the District of Co., lumbia asking that body to appoint a ma tional committee to urge the innova- ton on the public. It will require an to the Federal Constitution | to move the date, and as from the na- ture of the case such action will be ex- l tended over prolonged period, the | work cannot be begun too soon. The new date suggested for inducting the chief magistrate into office is April 30, a date which has the best of historical precedent in it's favor, since 1t was on
  April 30, 17S9, that our first president was actually inaugurated. It may be safely assumed, we think, that the pub- lie sentiment of the country will be a.l- most unanimous in favor of the pro- posed change. Every consideration which a fair regard for the public well- being can suggest may be urged in fa- yor of the new date, while no argu- nents can be brought against it except Iuch as may be prompted by that feel ng of ultra conservatism which op- ,oses any innovation on principle, or possibly such as may come from those opponents of President Mckinley who would look upon proposition involv- ng an extension of his present term for month or so as another scheme of the for knocking holes in the Declaration of Independence and sub erting the government"
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