Arizona republican., 1904-09-12

false construction of the constitu- tion as shield for weakness and ti- midty, or as an excuse for govern mental impotence.
 THE PENSION ORDER. When our opponents speak of "en- croachments" by the executive upon the authority of congress or the ju-. dietary, apparently the act they ordin- arily have in v'ew is Pension Order No. IS, issued under the authority of existing law. This order directed that hereafter any veteran of the civil war who had reached the age of sixty-two should be presumptively entitled to the | pension of six dollars month, given under the dependent pension law to those whose capacity to, earn their livelihood by manual labor has been ! decreased fifty per cent, and that by the time the age of seventy was reach ed the presumption should be that the physical disability was complete; the age being treated as an evidential fact in each case. This order was made in the performance of a duty imposed upon the president by an act of con- gress, which requires the executive to make regulations to govern the subor- dinates of the pension office in deter mining Who are entitled to pensions. President Cleveland had already exer- cised this power by a regulation which declared that seventy-fiye should be set as the age at which total disability should be conclusively presumed. Similarly President Mckinley estab- lished siXtyfive as the age at which half disability should be conclusively presumed. The regulation now in ques tion, in the exercise of the same power, supplemented these regulations made under Presidents Cleveland and Mckinley.
 FINANCIAL POLICIES.
 So much for what our opponents openly or covertly advance in the way of an attack on the acts of the admin . istration. When We come to consider the policies for which they profess to stand we are met with the difficulty al- ways arising when statements of policy are so made that they can be inter- preted in different ways. On some of the vital questions that have confront - : ed the American people in the last de- cade our opponents take the position that silence is the best possible way to convey their views. They contend that their lukewarm attitude of partial ac-
 
 compllshed entities them to be made the custodians of the financial honor and commercial interests which they nave but recently sought to ruin. Be- , ing unable to agree among themselves as to whether the gold standard is d curse or a blessing, and as to whether , we ought or ought not to have free and unlimited coinage of silver they have apparently thought it expedieni to avoid any committal on these sub l. jects, and individually each to follow his particular bent. Their nearest ap- proach to majority judgment seems to be that it Is now expedient to as- sert their convictions one way or the other, and that the establishment o1 ? the gold standard by the republican party should not be disturbed unless there Is an alteration in the relative . quantity of production of silver and 5 gold. Men who hold sincere convic- . tions on vital questions can respect . equally sincere men with whose views 3. they radically differ: and men may ] confess change of faith without con- t promising their honor or self-respect . But it is difficult to respect an attl. l tude of such as has been fairly 2 described above; and where there is
 AAC lCSpGCl lIltIe Cdil Dc no lTuSI- 4 . policy With so slender a basis of prin- 9 ciple would not stand the strain of q 7 single year Of business diversity. = As for what our opponents say ir Q reference to capital and labor, individ- r ual or corporate here again all wJ ' need by way of answer is to point tc n what we have actually done and tc say that if continued in power we shaI 5 continue to carry out the policy we 5 nave been pursuing and to execute the laws as resoIutely and fearlessly in tn, l future as We have executed them in tn, ] past.
 THE TRUSTS.
 Tn action of the attorney general II
 enforcing the antitrust and intersta tt
 commerce laws, and the action of tho
 last congress in enlarging the scope o
 the interstate commerce law, and IT
 creating the department of commerce
 and labor, with bureau of corpora
 tions have for the first time opened . chance for the national government tc