The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-05-26
Spirit of the Press.
Am inconsistent ..Morld.0
Louisville Courier-Journal.

Louisville Courler-Jo ufnal.
We reprint from the New York
World what that paper represents as
"The True History of the Bond Sales, y
that is, the deal by which, ito save the
honor of the country" Mr.. Cleveland
-disdaining the suggested idea of a
popular loan-entered into a secret
agreement with Money Syndicate,
enabling it's members to gain many
millions at the public cost
This makes unSavory reading. The
worst part of the business is that, for
all Mr.. Cleveland's belated special
pleading-artfully timed to meet the
coming National COnvention-the
reader cannot escape from the conclu-
sion that, over-infiuenced by the
coterie of bankers from whom he took
his fiscal bearings, Mr.. Cleveland, in a
panic of ill-judged apprehension, al
lowed the Government to be buncoed
out of many millions of the peoples
hard-earned dollars.
We have always rejected and re-
scented the charge that the transaction
was a corrupt one. 1t was simply char
acteristic of Mr.. CleVeland'S method of
doing business. A man denSely iS-
norant of all economic questonS-get-
ting alike his tariff notions and his
financial notions by ObSOrptiOn-pre-
ferring the company of the Million
aires to the company of the politicians
he became the veriest tool in the
hands of the money-sharks and the
monopolists. masquerading the while
as a Revenue Reformer and a defend
er of the public credit. In reality, he
was only a self-willed. self-confident
man--fancying he knew it ALL deaf to
the counsels of his colleagues in party
eadership-resolved to so his own
gait at all times and at all hazards
In good truth, by intention, he was
almost as spectacular as, Teddy HIM
self
Whilst this delighted the unthinking
political half-breed and rejoiced the
fractions Mugwump, it led to dire con-
sequences; to consequences the penal
ties for which the Democratic party
has been for eight long years paying
in sweat and blood. Yet are there
those who want this man for a fourth
nomination and a third term in the
White House. to be, we take it, Il kind
of fitting prelude to another four
years, and, at the end of them, of
LatinAmerican life-tenurei
Come to think about it, the World
itself, was, seeking to lead the process
sion in this regard but few months
ago. Even then, the Courier-Journal
ventured to call time on both the
wisdom and the candor of it's es-
teemed New York contemporary. In
its career that potential newspaper
has done many things, said many
things, we could heartily approve
sometimes some things, which, had we
been so minded, we might have as
heartily opposed-but it never sought
to do the people a better turn than
when, promptly, on the very instant
it exposed the fallacies of the bond
sales and offered to head the list, and
to raise, by popular subscription, all
the money needed by the Treasury
giving the people the profit of the
business and the Government the BEN
eft of the saving.
The Worlds eXpoSitions were so
clear, it's plan so opposite and prac-
teal, its exposure of the Cleveland
scheme so convincing, that, for once,
eXasperated out of his affected indif-
ference to newspaper criticism, Mr..
Cleveland flew into a rage and rushed
into print. Yet, forgetting these
things, the World, following after the
Brooklyn Eagle, would have forced
such person upon us at crisis
where a single misstep must prove
fatal 1t is this kind of journalism
that maketh the heart sick, leaving
one to doubt not merely all schools of
journalism, but all prevailing methods
of newspaper advertising.