Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-02-18
Comment at Capitol on His
Clarion Call.
DEMOCRATIC OPINION
HIS UTTERANCE A MODEL OF IN
CONSISTENCY.
One Senator Calls Him Another Rip
Van Winkle-Replies in De-
bate Are Expected.

Grover Cleveland's clarion call to arms
issued to his fellow democrats through the
medium of an essay on politics In the sat
urday Evening Post of Philadelphia, was
| the subject of much talk and some jeering
at the Capitol today. Democrats and repup-
| licans alike discussed his latest fulmina-
| ton, and 1t is said to be likely that replies
will be made to Mr. Cleveland by prominent
republicans during the coming pohtlcai oe-
/ bates in the House and Senate, as many
of them think he has opened up an oppor-
tunity for partisan rejoinder too good to be
| lost.
Democrats did not take kindly today to
| the admonition and advice of Mr.. CleVe-
land. In the first place. his standing Is not
| good with the majority of the democrats
| of the House and Senate. Among demo-
| cratic senators he has not single enthu-
| siastic supporter. few eastern men IN the
House still worship at his shrine, put their
number is very limited
Aside from their opposition to his pro-
| posed personal leadership, Mr.. Clevelands
platforms as enunciated in his article, 90
| not appeal to the rank and file of the demo.
! Gratis of the House, who under a new anu
yirile leadership are endeavoring TO lay tne
| foundation for fight to the finish with the
| enemy.
A Model of Inconsistency.
As a model of inconsistency Mr.. Cleve-
lands latest utterance breaks the limit, in
the opinion of some of the democrats who
analyzed his essay today. In the outset
Mr.. Cleveland makes this statement:
.Obsolete issues and questions no longer
challenging popular interest should be man
fully abandoned
That, of course, is a slap at the obsolete
money issue of Mr.. Bryan. Mr.. cleveland
in the next breath renews allegiance TO sew
eraI obsolete issues, one of which was
favorite Bryan issue in 1900, and wmch was
tried by the democracy again in 1907 In the
congressional campaign. AT TINS late oay
he comes forward with paraphrase OF the
Kansas City platform, where imperialism
was the paramount question and graveiy
advocates the policy of scuttle, which ne
| himself tried in Hawaii. but which the
American people could not stomach:
Democrats today criticised the cleveland
essay for this return to dead issues against
which he warns his brothers in the open
ing paragraphs. Mr.. Cleveland, referring
to our occupation of the Phnplnes' oe-
clares that no greater national fall from
grace was ever known" than that of our
government in taking the Philippines. After
berating the government for the poncy
which Mckinley inaugurated and which
has been indorsed by the voters In one
presidential and three congressional cleo
tions Mr. Cleveland recommends retreat
as follows:
"Refusing to accept the shallow and dis
credtable pretense that our conquest in
the PHILIPPINES has gone so far as to be be-
yond recall or correction, we insist that
nation, as well as an individual, is never
so magnanimous or great as when false
steps are retraced and the path of honesty
| and virtue is regained." Then follows the
direct injunction that the United States
| should withdraw from the Philippines and
| leave the islands to the natives.
That advice is not accountable to the pro-
gressive democrats of Congress. While Mr..
Cleveland has been reposing in the quiet
of his Princeton home. far from contact
with the people, the live and hustling men
of his party in Congress, who have been in
touch with the voters, realize that the doc
trine he breaches has been thoroughly dis
countenanced and that the party cannot
get any votes with the scuttle policy.
Another Rip Van Wrinkle.
why, here's another Rip Van Wrinkle.
just awakening and finding his old flint
lock musket said a democratic senator
today. We've got to have Krag-Jorgen-
sens in this fight
Mr.. Cleveland next trails along with an
other proposed issue which has just been
dropped like hot potato by his party in
the Senate. He attacks the governments
Panama canal policy. The young democrats
of the House fought shy of that pitfall
| from the outset and even their elders I'm
himself. are lodging ii. Only last Tuesday,
without a dissenting voice from any demo-
crat an agreement was reached to vote
the treaty. and il is known that when
the ratification comes less than half
dozen democrats will oppose 1t.
Mr.. C1evelands article says, in part
about the canal policy:
THE democratic party has been consist
| ent and unremitting in its advocacy of an
| interoceanic canal, and has with the live
| lest satisfaction looked forward to the day
when such highway of commerce. built
under the auspices of our government
would be contributed by America to the
worlds progress and civilization. 1t is
| nevertheless. not within the mandates of
! the democratic creed that even In consum-
| mating so noble an enterprise as this the
| territorial rights OF any other nation should
be disregarded or that our own national
| good faith should be subjected to reason
able suspicion
The democrats in Congress cannot get
| up any enthusiasm at all over that issI,e
| They have probed and sounded the circun-
stances to the uttermost and have found
nothing discreditable to this government
| Their folks at home are prodding them up
| daily to get the canal started and they
| see no politics in further delay Mr. Cleye-
lands opening admonition to avoid obso-
lete issues is applied to this case by them
Tariff Reform.
His demand for tariff reform does not
| find a hearty response. They know the
| KIND OF reform of the tariff he would in
augurate-take an AK and go at the tariff
| that way-and there are still men in Com
| gress who remember the smash Mr. Cleye-
land played with the is4rty's interests when
! he was their official adviser before and
| when they followed his advice The tariff
| reform of the democracy of today is going
! to be much more delicateiy adjusted
| affair.
Republicans who read his article and
| commented upon 1t characterized il as a
| mass of demagogical misstatements They
i VIII take up his arguments hereafter In de-
| bate. All republicans were quick to see
| the Inconsistency of his Obsolete Issues
| advice They will attack him, however.
principally upon his reference to tariff and
| trusts. for there they think he is most
| ponderously weak. Mr.. Cleveland writing
of trusts said:
Fortunately the democratic party need
| make no wild and unreasonable pledges of
| legislative action to prove its sympathy
| with legitimate interests of labor; Its ha-
| tired of monopolistic greed is so instructive
that it should be known of all men without
/ " ra "a ga pt ap1 raiSl -,