The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-29
PENSION FUND FOR
 EX-PRES|DENTS Grover Cleveland Suggests
 Action By Congress WORRIES IN RETIREMENT Former President Tells How Persons In His Position Are Flooded With All Kinds of Requests and Offers.
WORRIES IN RETIREMENT

| New York, December 2S.-Former Pres | ident Grover Cleveland, under. the title of l Our People and Their Ex-Presdents,"
 has contributed an interesting article to the Youths Companion for January. Re-
 ferring to the poverty of Jefferson after | he left the presidency as a blow to na- | tional pride" MT. Cleveland declares def | mite and generous provisions should be made for the maintenance of chief mag | istrates at the end of their terms. He | deals with the subject at length and ex
 plains that he feels he can do so with out his sincerity being questioned. since he Is beyond the need of aid from the public treasury.
 "The condition is by no means met" MT. Cleveland writes, "by the emergent and spasmodic relief occasionally fur , nished under the guise of military pen sion or some other pretext, nor would it be best met by making compensation de- pendent upon the direct charge of sen- atorial or other duty. Our people ought to make a definite and generous provision for all cases alike, based on motives of justice and fairness and adequate to the stuation.'
 Mr. Cleveland described the limitation that his office places on a retiring Pres ident in his choice of occupation and means of livelihood, and the popular con- ception of him as a repository of na- tional dignity enforce a scale of living that may not be within his private means. "There is a sort of vague, but none the less imperative feeling abroad in the land,' said MT. Cleveland, that one who has occupied the great office of President holds In trust for his fellow citizens a certain dignity which in his conduct and manner of life he is bound to protect against loss or deterioration Obedience to this obligation prescribes for him only such work as In popular judgment is not undignified This sug- gests without argument a reciprocal con nection between the curtailment of op- portunites and reasonable obligation of indemnification on the other"
 One division of the Cleveland article is devoted to the Occupations of an Ex- President, and in 1t the former Presi dent reveals the multiplicity of things which persons endeavor to bring to the attention of the retired statesman and the manner of affairs he is asked to en- gage in.
 'He is deluged with books" MT. Cleve- land says, most of them indifferent or positively worthless, and these he is ex- pected to read and commend for adver- Using purposes. He Is made a target for all sorts of peculiar solicitation, embrac- ing all sorts of objects, ranging from large endowment funds and disinterested owners of fabulously profitable invest ments to pathetic and depressing appeals for the relief of individual distress.
 "He is almost daily importuned to join in the management of public enterprises which professes to be useful or bene- ficial or charitable. He is perslstently urged to make addresses on topics and for purposes that are bewildering and at times and places that are impossible. Ills daily mail furnishes conclusive evidence that he Is not overlooked by any class or condition of our people in any corner of our land and the visitors he receives forbid the reflection that he Is only a melancholy product of our government system.
 Tt is most gratifying to note. how the lives of our ex-presidents are made grate- ful and bright by the generous attach ment and spontaneous kindness mani Tested toward them by their fellow coun- trymen,"