The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-06-23
= ; : ; ; ; - 2 2 2
WATTERSON'S ATTACK
ON GROVER CLEVELAND
Refers to His Presence at TiIden Club Banquet as
"a Deaths Head at the Feast"


selfish ends, he left it Ieaderless and
divided. to the mercy Of the winds and
waves of factionism called into being
by his own lack Of generosity and fore
sight
AT the Chicago Convention.
Even down to the Chicago conven-
ton in 1895. Mr.. Cleveland stood in the
middle of the road blocking the way
of friend and foe who might desire or
seek the nomination of that convention
He could not be induced 10 efface him
self. Whilst he was from day 10 day
pretending that ne would issue fare
we'll address to his party taking him
self from out the range Of possible
nominees, a member of his cabinet.
without rebuke. was permitted earnest
~ to urge him for a fourth time upon
the party. He literally held Carlisle
whilst Carlisle's enemies skinned him.
But later along, when a sacriicial
nomination was in issue he was
prompt. even vOciferOus. in his refusal
to consider it. In a word, he was a
receptive candidate for a fourth nom
nation; he thought the faCtiOnal
troubles in the party would bring this
about; and-well we saw what we saw,
we have been there and we have re-
turned, and to make long story short,
we know what we know.
1T seems a kind of irony Of fate that
il should be a Tilden. club to welcome
Mr.. Cleveland's baneful re-entry into
political activities. Mr.. Tilden died
with words Of scorn and contempt
upon his lips for Grover Cleveland. He
understood perfectly the coarse text of
Mr.. Cleveland's physical and mental
makeup; his obtuse selfishness; his
ignorant Obstinacy; his vulgar self-as-
sertion; his indefatigable duplicity.
That Mr.. Cleveland should put himself
forward as a cOnjectural party leader
Is proof Of a self-cOnfidence which
would be sublime if it were not SIMS
ter; because leadership with him means
office. and nothing but Office.
Year of Homestead Riots.
From 1889 until 1892. affecting the
same seclusion, Mr.. Cleveland was in
dustriOusly shaping his campaign for
the nomination of the latter year His
old OftiCe-hOlders were industriOusly
helping him. They thought if he got
back, they would get back. So in every
precinct throughout the country, whilst
the chieftain masqueraded as a patriot
and sage, rising superior to the ma
terial things of ambition and life, the
Cleveland propaganda went on beneath
the surface. The trick succeeded. It
had never been tried before, and those
who might have withstOod it knew not
how. AS the appointed time drew nigh
il looked as if the whole country was
for Cleveland. Through the admirable
and tireless management of Mr.. Whit
ney he was nominated, and, thanks to
the Homestead riots, he was elected
and the first thing he did on getting
back to his kingdom was to announce
to the men who had restored it to him
his former Officeholders-that they
We're not in it,. Thus he killed two
birds with one stone; he got rid of a
riff-raff of importunates and made a
new riff-Taff OF eXpectants; trusting
his luck that in future contingencies
the latter would outweigh the former.
More than any politician of his time
he had understood how to play upon
public opinion and to pose for effect.
This had enabled his partisans to ere
ate an ideal Cleveland, to place upon
a pedestal, and to fall down and wor-
ship their own man of straw. Mean
while the real Cleveland grew to be a
veritable Upas tree, so that whoever
came beneath its shadow persisted. The
truth is that though a wrecker of
larger craft, in padding his own canoe
Mr.. Cleveland is a most dexterous oars
man.
The idea of his nomination in 1904 is
little short of ridiculous. He would be
hailed by the Republicans as the Diaz
Of Democracy; that is, as its only
onliest captain general 1t is safe to
say that as a candidate for third
term in the White House and for a
fourth time as a presidential nominee,
he could not carry contested district
in the United States.
The Tilden club has certainly not put
its best foot foremost. 1t rather, as
the saying is, has put its foot into
it." The name of Cleveland may still
be a name to conjure with for the Re
pubIicans. With the Democrats of the
west and south it is simply hateful. Ad-
dressing il. the party might paraphrase
the familiar words of Rip Van Wrinkle:
Il got enough, and I know when l got
enough" though it would hardly be
able to complete the sentence and to
add: Il am glad when l get enough"
The substance of what Mr.. Cleveland
said was done in his characteristic vein
Of felicitOus subtlety; but which of the
fables tells OF d certain animal with
sad memories in mind, saying, in re-
Spouse to a certain other animal: Mr..
Fox, you talk too we'll"