The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-04-16

faIIacies of others, maintaining each
tenet with uncompromising arrogance
until compelled TO abandon 1t, and then
shrouding retreat in impregnable am
biguitv; a constructive statesman by
profession. a destructive politician in
practice: in seeming, a chivalric Or
Iando; in fact. a Bombastes Furioso!
x x X
But the colonel was not content to
speak in parallels only; he went ahead
and said right out in meeting that our
present ruler answers the preacher
dissertation. I'VE are told" he con-
tinued. that president chosen by the
people is immune from criticism; thai
he is a thing apart, not a mere eXecu-
tive officer. but a tribune enveloped in
the odor of sanctity which safeguarded
the kings of old 1t is a new idea. Crit
icism of official conduct has ever been
a prerogative of the people Not so
now! The heavy hand of fear rests
upon the land. The audacity of one
has triumphed over the courage of the
many. The mighty organization known
as the Republican party has become
mere personal machine. Its former
leaders have drawn back affrightedly
into their corners. Their wishes are no
longer regarded, their consultation no
longer desired. obedience to edict is not
only exacted from but enforced upon
them"
Nor is the colonel any better content
with the Democratic party and its lead
ership. He thinks Democratic senators
and CONSERVATIVES "eat the crumbs of
patronage from the hand that smote
them and lick the boots whose impact
they have felt, while simultaneously
their undisputed if not, i'm fact, peerless
leader hobbies like a cripple in the
wake of his successful rival, gathering
as he goes the few scraps that are left
of his own fallacies." And more to
the same effect.
Recurring to Roosevelt, the doughty
colonel objects to the presidents as
sumption that he has a monopoly Of
honesty and that so many others are
in the Ananias class. He remarks,
with some sarcasm, that we have never
had a dishonest president Moreover,
he does not recall any other president
who "besought large sums of money
for use. not in conducting a political
canvass over a protracted period, but
on election day"
Right there it is pertinent to recall
the fact that Colonel Harvey derided
Judge Parker for charging Roosevelt
and Cortelyou with doing the very thing
which so arouses the colonel's ire now;
and his show of wrath at this late day
ought to have been accompanied by
confession of his wrong then.
In conclusion, addressing these DEM
ocrats, the colonel asks:
Is there no courage left in US? Must
time-honored Democracy follow the Re
publican party into the vortex OF IalIa :
cies? Is there not somewhere to be found
inspiration to tear down the flag OF shreus
and patches now waved insultingly IN our
faces. and raise. whether for success or
failure but everlastingly for the right,
the banner planted by the fathers OF the
reDubic? May not one final attempt De
made to ioin hands with the conservative
of living truth and real sincerity to sup
plant the hollow sham and glaring ny
pocrisy before which now in shame We
how our heads? If government by the
people must perish and the pendulum be
swung back to autOcracy, then woe. IN
deed. 10 the land. But let us, at least, go
down with our faces to the front, tramp
ling eXpedienCy under rect, spuEhlnS COM
promise. del wing mobs. following the fixed
star of undying principle, and trusting 70
the return to reason of the American peo-
pie and the working of God lmmutaple
laws for a resurrection that shall be glor-
ious because deserved
Ezekiel in his palmiest days of grief
couldn't have done much better in the
way Of lamentations than that, could
| he? No hope in the Republican party;
no glimpse of redeeming grace in
Democracy. A pail of gloom DER
spreading the nation and night coming
on awfully FAST
Still. come TO think about it, the
colonel may be mistaken. Possibly
what he mistakes for historical truth
| is only the effect of a cold lobster sup
per and too many brain throbs follow
| ing. Out west here the people have a
good deal of faith in America and the
/ Americans. Some of them think the
president is a sort of hootin', tOotin' bad
man in politics, but when they get time
to take his case in hand they'll try tC
settle him as they would any other
rampageous citizen who had mistaken
a big head for the divine affiatus Of
genius. Moreover, the west likes Il
think that honesty and efficiency anC
! leadership are rather common traits il
American humanity, and that when tbs
east finally wakes up to the fOolishnes:
of worshiping Roosevelt as a sort Of
modern Moses when he is nothing bu
a very human politician of the shrewd
est type there will be no difficulty abou
finding a better man as his successor.
Don't be surprised if it takes two o