The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-08-03
QUESTIONS BY S. A. JONES
He Levels Trenchant Blows at Cleve.
land and Hill.
GROVER AS A BULL IN A CHINA SHOP
Idea Of 10000 Fly the Track-ers Attempting
10 'Harmonize" Six and Half Million
Democrats Too Much for Mr..
JoEes' Understanding


To the Editor: In these days of politi-
cal degeneracy it is a difficult matter to
sift the chaff from the grain and tell
when one has actually found real true
grain of political sincerity and patriot
ism. A young man uniformed on the
political situation of the country in the
past seeking his first glimpse as the
years of voting responsibility arrives, OF
political life and the status and relation
of, men through their political conduct
to their respective parties to the nation
would be gravely and seriously i'm
pressed, after reading exPresident
Grover Clevelands speech at the or
ganization of the Tilden Club in New
York. A young man would feel that here
is the essence of wisdom, here is the
crystalized philosophy of great man,
here is a man, the American people have
twice honored with the highest honor in
their gift, and they have turned their
back on him Just as he had led them in
view of the promised land, and now they
are far lost in the uncertain wilderness
of political destruction, and to him
alone can they turn with any hope to
cross the Jordan. He fastens the philo-
sophy by an ingenious utterance that
could be construed: II am the Alpha
and Omega of old time Democracy. L
have no errors to regret. no sins for
which to repent. / am the Immaculate,
either retired by my own will from pub
lie life, or by being discarded by the
care not to discuss which, Then he calls
for harmony, and the six and one-half
million Democrats that repudiated him
to bow down and beg pardon of the great
Grover, in humbleness and sorrow. Su-
preme gall is said to beat the best
philosophy on earth at times, audacity
is said to be worth at times more than
bravery, assumed innocence, virtue and
truthful simplicity are as destructive to
truth and virtue as a bull in a china
shop. Perhaps outside the accidental
elevation to the Presidential Chair of
Theodore Roosevelt a greater bull in the
china shop act was never witnessed by
the world than Grover Cleveland's last
term as President of the United States.
But the richest and most catching utter
ance in this speech at the Tilden Club
was his statement that Gin times past
he often met Democratic Governors
Democratic Senators, and many Demo-
cratic members from Northern States.
Now he was unable to remember of hav-
ing met or heard of one in these latter
years. Ye gods! What a discovery! No
indeed, he has not. When Cleveland
went into the White House the first
time there were forty-one majority of
Democrats in Congress, and a majority
of twelve in the Senate. His second ad-
vent into the White House reversed the
situation and gave to the. House Re-
publican majority of seventy four. and
were left only thirty nine Democrats in
the Senate to forty-two Republicans.
Yet after he had driven all this repre-
sentation from the Democratic party in
the North and West, changing the ma
jority of both Houses, wiping nearly all
the Northern States and a number of the
western States. ard almost some of the
southern States from the Democratic
column, he has supreme gall to make the
statement of making it appear that the
democratic Governors and Senators had
disappeared because of the principles he
had advocated not being adopted, and
that their disappearance was the result
of what he terms strange gods" known
as the platform of '96 and 1900, and
Organism caused the disappearance of
the once commonly seen Democratic
Governors and Senators and members
from the Northern and Western States.
(IIe should have had the gall to finish
up the job and declared mot my clean
immaculate hands. but the soiled hands
of Bryan are the ones that wiped out
the Northern Governors and Senator's, so
that l can no longer meet them, though
the job was completed by me long be-
fore Bryan was ever a reamed of posi-
bility as Presidential candidate.)
Puck has lost the opportunity of his
life by failing to produce a picture that
would reveal the sublimity of David B.
Hill, bowling down before Grover Cleve-
land and eulogizing Cleveland's utter
ances. and the man of Wolfcrt's Roost,
smiling in sweet reconciliation on the
hester of Democratic wreckers, and To
picture the insult to the name of Tilden
in having these two chief, Nestors aud
wreckers of the grand old party called
upon to coniure up the name of Illden,
and handy with it as a plea Tor mar
mony, and cast their hypocrltlcaI eHu-
sions in coveret language at the man
that stood on the platform OF 30 and
1900 and battled for the people and polled
more votes when democracy was con-
siderel dead. than Grover Cleveland did