Arizona republican., 1904-10-14
The President and Honorable.

makes spirited and juslfable protest
 against the use of the title Hon" in
 referring to the president or to anybody
 else. It is a protest with which The Republican has much symra.shy. The
 title Hon" never appears in these
 columns except in fun or in unwilling deferenoe to a custom.
 The Democrat and Chronicle says that multitudes of people who ought
 to know better, when they have occa- sion to write to She president, address
 their communications Hon. Theodore Roosevelt" etc. This is eCl wrong for two reasons. It is unoonstitrt!onal and
 it is undignified. The constitution pro- vides for no honorary title for the in 6ividual citizen who occupies the office of president. It is known that the
 makers of the constitution debated proposition to give him an honorary title. His Excellency." or something of that sort, and finally rejeated it. Therefore. the constitution may be said, with some show of reason, to for bid bestOwing any honorary title, like Hon" prefxed to his name or Esq" affixed to it, upon the president. It is undignified because. since every petty ofiice-holder in the land is an Hon" by virtue of a silly custom it is belittMng the presidents high office to class It with lot of petty offices by making the president also an Hon" An envelope addressed to the president of the. United States should bear ibhe simple superscription, The President, Wash ington, D. C." and a letter to him should begin the same way. to be fol- lowed by Sir The well meaning in- dividual who addresses the president as Hon has about as much tact as the equally we'll meaning individual who addresses PaderewSki as "profes- Sor.' and tAsi. well meaning individual has about as much tact as a bear. The only possible argument that can be urged in favor of calling the presi- dent Hon." is this: Custom prescribes that every man who becomes a member of the assembly Of the state of New York shall be Hon for the rest of hls dfys, il life or in memory. Theodore Roosevei. Evas aforetime a member of the assembly of the state of New York. Therefore Theodore Roosevelt, no n.a-- ter what else he is. is rerpetulIIy and irreyocably Hon" The answer $ that the greater office eclipses the less. Because a general used to be a captain. is he properly to be addressed as "Cap?" The title of the president is his official designation. He is not Hon." nor Esq" nor Your Excellency," nor Your Serene Highness' nor Your Transparency For anything of the sort. He is Theodore Roosevelt, or John Smith, or whatever his personal name may be, President of the United Stetes." That is really. all things con sidered, the highest and mos. honorable tie in the world. You can't improve on 1t. Better let 1t alone.
 The title Hon" is passing out of good usage. General knowledge that the president is not an Hon" will has ten its passage to oblivion. Its passage 70 oblivion ought to be hastened. It is ridiculous. It doesn't mem anyshing. IL 'confers no distiEction You couldn't empty a glass of water out of front window in any crowded street at any hour of the day without bezpatterine dozen Hons" Practically everybody is an Hon." The title is fndistinctive Gs Esq" and it's fate is foreshadowe.I by the fate of that once honorable Handle"
 The minor omce-holder who o5vi- cusly takes a pride in his..Hon." g regarded as d ridiculous person. One feels that he is rather playing a joke on friend recently fnduci.ed to some public office that customarily carries with it the title when he first addresses a letter to him as Hon" So-andso~ It | won't be long before Hon" is as ex- tinct as Esq"
 That will be, well if only because it will leave the world with one less req son for laughing m. our characteristic | republican fondness for titles. But there will be plenty left. There is no | other nation on earth wherein titles | are so numerous and gorgeous as in | this. There is no other nation whose | citizens are so universally titled and | SO proud of their titles. The land teens with Grand Exalted High Potentates. lneifable Transparent Cockolorurns. | Perless Perennial Panjandrums, and so | on. Most of these titles are ridiculous Tor the same reason that the names of most race horses are ridiculous. There are so many of them that all the non ridiculous possibilities of tftulary aomecFature were long ago e71elllus.ed. Men actually have these absurdities recorded at length on their visiting cards IL may be very greatly doubts if there 4s one free and equaP American alive who hasn't some sort of tituIar handle to his name.
 
 It's dollar to a peanut that poor