The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-09-12

I.4te
Fiaillng. w1o are entitled TO pen
SLOWS president Cleveland had already
exercised this power by a regulation
which declared that 20 should be Set
- the age atswhich total. disability
snoUi1 be conclusiTeIy presumed. Sim
iiarly President MCKINLEY established
20 as the age at which half disability
suoDid &c concluSively presumed. The
regulation now in question, in the exer-
Use or the same power. supplemented
inese regulations made under Presi-
uents Cleveland and Mckinley.
Taffy For Veterans.
The men who fought for union and
Tor liberty in the years from ISL TO 1866
not only saved this nation from ruin,
bQt rendered an inestimable service TO
al mankind. We of the United States
owe the fact that today we have a
country TO what they did: and the ma
ton has decreed by law that no one of
them, II disabled from earning his own
living, shall lack the pension 10 which
ne Is entitled. not only as matter OF
gratitude, but as a matter of justice.
~ Is the policy of the Republican par
y. steadily continued through many
years. 70 treat the veterans Of the civil
war in a spirit of broad liberality. The
order In question carried out this pol
ley. and is justified not merely on legal
grounds, but also on grounds of public
morality. 1t is q matter of common
knowledge that when the average man
Who depends for his wages upon bodily
labor has reached the age OF g. his
earning ability is in all probability less
by half than it was when he was in
his prime; and that by the time he has
reached the age of 20 he has probably
lost all earning ability. If there IS
doubt upon this point let the doubter
examine the employees doing manual
labor in any great mandatory or on
any great railroad, and find out how
large Is the proportion of men between
the ages of 62 and 20. and whether
these men are still employed at the
highly paid tasks which they did in
their prime. As q matter of fact, many
railroads pension their employees when
they have reached these ages, and in
nations where old age pensions prevails
they always begin somewhere between
the two limits thus set. It is easy to
test our opponents sincerity in this
piatter. The order in question is re-
vocabie at the pleasure Of the execu-
tive. II our opponents come into power
they can revoke this order and an
pounce that they will treat the veter-
ans of 81 to 20 as presumably in full
bodily vigor and not entitled to pen
sions. VIII they now authoritatively
state that they intend 20 do this? If
-'Nf ~ eNNNRN ttlt ASSuF- II llOls ADEll
We have the right to ask why they
raise an issue which. when raised. they
do not venture to meet.
Claims All the Credit.
In addition to those acts of the adj
hllnlstratlon which they venture to as
sail only after misrepresenting them
there are others which they dare MOI
oEeruE or officially attack. and. vet
Which they covertly bring forward as
reasons Tor the overthrow of the part.-
IN certain great centers and with GER
Tain great interests our opponents make
every effort TO show that the settlement
or the anthracite coal strike by the
individual act of the president, and the
auccesstul suit against the Northern
securities company-the merger suit
undertaken by the department of JUS
tee. were acts because Of which the
present administration should be
thrown from power. Yet they dare not
openly condemn either act. They dare
not in any authoritative or formal man.
ner say that i'm either case wrong was
done or error committed in the method
Of action, or I'm the choice of instru-
ments for putting that action into ef-
feet But what they dare not manfully
assert in open day they seek to use
fartively and through special agents.
conducted should De made sometimes
on the ground that too much, some
times on the ground that too little has
heen done. Some of our opponents COM
main because under the antitrust and
Interstate commerce laws suits were
undertaken which have been success
full: others because suits were not UNI
dertaken which would have been un-
successful. The Democratic state con-
Nanfinu NAU~ York naaff xt-ffh
enthracite coal strike by demanding i'm
deliberate and formal fashion that the
national government should take pos
session OF the coal fields; yet cham
pions of that conventions cause now
condemn the fact that there was any
action by the president at although
they must know that it was only this
action by the ~esident which pre-
vented the movement for national own
eTship of the coal fields from gaining
what might we'll have been an irresist-
ible impetus Such mutually destruct-
ife criticisms furnish an adequate
measure of the chance for coherent &C
ton or constructive legislation IL our
opponents should be given power.
Misstatement of Facts.
SO much for what our opponents
openly or cOvertly advance in the way
or an attack on the acts of the admins
tration.- When we come to consider the
policies for which they profess TO stand
we are met with the difficulty always
arising when statements Of policy are
so made that they can be interpreted
In different ways. On some of the vital
questions that have confronted the
American people in the last decade our
opponents take the position that silence
IS the best possible way 10 convey their
views. They contend that their luke
warm attitude Of pareial acquiescence
In what others have accomplished en-
titles them 10 be made the custOdians
OF the financial honor and commercial
interests which they have but recently
sought TO ruin. Being unable to agree
among themselves as 10 whether the
gold standard is a curse or a blessing
and as to whether we ought or ought
rot to have free and unlimited coinage
OF silver. they have apparently thought
Il eXpedient TO avoid any committal on
these subjects, and individually each
70 follow his particular bent Their
nearest approach 90 a majority judg-
rRent seems TO be that it is now in
expedient TO assert their convictions
one way or the other, and that the es-
tablishment of the gold standard by
the Republican party should not be
disturbed unless there is an alteration
in the relative quantity OF production
or silver and gold. Men who hold sin
cere convictions on vital questions can
respect equally sincere men with whose
views they radically differ: and men
may confess a change Of faith without
compromising their honor or their sell
respect. But il is difficult 10 respect an
attitude of mind such as has been
\ 81 NH HnnErn