The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-10-10
A BADLY MISTAKEN CONTEM-
 PORARY.

that saving Cleveland" to The Virgtnian- Pilot was the red rag and the bull busi- ness again There are yet few respecta- bIe Democratic newspapers which feel 1t q duty to have fits every time they hear or read favorable mention of the ex- President, and 1t Is to be regretted that The Pilot is among the number. It says:
 We submit that no man Is entitled to he ranked as a statesman who Is neither . good administrator nor the creator of definite policies. Was MT. Cleveland. as President, either of these things? Was he not such a poor administrator as to virtually disrupt his party? Will The Advertiser name a single statesmanllke policy that owes It's origin to Mir. Cleve- land?
 Well, 1t looks like wasting time to point out the acts of MT. Cleveland which were evidences of the very highest form of statesmanship for there are some papers so saturated with prejudice that they refuse to see the truth when presented to them. MT. Cleveland's tariff message to Congress in December. 1887, was both statesman-like and pre-eminently cour- aReous act. Even such an intense tariff reformer as John c. Carlisle begged him ! to modify the message. not because 1t was wrong, but because 1t might defeat its | author and the Democratic Party. To most Presidents that would have been a convincing argument, but MT. Cleveland | thought his position right. as 1t certainly was, and he adhered to 1t. That 1t de- feated him in 1888 Is no argument against his position, but Is a strong one in his favor. And the people thought so and demonstrated it by electing him four years later.
 Another act which showed him to be both a statesman and a man of courage was his opposition to the cheap money sentiment The Democratic Party had been inoculated with the free silver heresy. MT. Cleveland resolutely set his face against a majority of his party. refused to be either caJoled or bullied, and maintained the credit of the gov ernment by selling bonds in the face of the most bitter opposition from Democrats who preferred that the gov ernment should run the risk of being dishonored rather than that the theory of sound money should prevail. We know this is a sore subject with papers like The Pilot. but 1t Is history. If Mir. Cleveland had fallen in with the Bryanesque policy of free sil- yer he would now be a great man in the estimation of some who are most voluble in their abuse of him and his policy. He
 was not that kind of man, but referred
 to do his duty to the country. as he saw 1t, rather than add to his temporary pop
 ularity by the adoption of a ruinous and discredtable policy.
 And when we come to discuss states manship no fair-minded man can fail to commend Mir. Clevelands course in the Venezuelan dispute. Not since the days of Andrew Jackson has President taken bolder or more advanced position than he did and the result proved that he was right. The entire country held it's breath when his position was made public, and the most severe criticisms were showered on him. It was freely charged that he was about to precipitate war with Great Britain for political effect, and he was denounced from one end of the Union to the other for what many considered a rash and Aindefensible course, but it had no effect on him, and when 1t was all over men of all parties | applauded him for upholding the honor
 and credit of the government.
 When The Pilot refers to MT. Cleveland
 as the man who selected impossible
 cabinets" it almost becomes grotesque
 When he became President the first time
 he really had but little acquaintance with
 the public men of the country, yet his
 first cabinet contained such names as
 Bayard, Lamar. Whitney, Villas and l Garland, and in his second administra-
 ton he had men like Olney, Carlisle, Herbert, Wilson and Lamont. Demo-
 cratic newspaper which sneers at names
 like these must be far gone with pre- | tudice and partisan blindness. No Presi-
 dent since the war has had stronger
 cabinets than Mir. Cleveland had in both
 administrations, and the number of good
 and true Southern statesmen honored by
 him ought to make any Southern news
 paper ashamed to criticise him
 One more extract:
 Of course The Advertiser will never
 see these things. It will continue to
 kowtow and bump It's forehead on the floor before its idol to the end of its days | But it will have less and less company Time is affording opportunity for bet
 ter perspective and Cleveland. the Presi, 6ent looms smaller even to the eyes of bis once fond worshippers. We contem-
 plate with kindly pity the day when The Advertiser will have the whole temple to itself.
 The Pilot is right. The Advertiser lPesOlutely refuses to see that the best