The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-08-20

the PROSTATE south But, let that
pass.
Hayes came into office with a faint
ed name. We would have supposed
that he would have grappIed wltn any
national proposition that calculated 10
rehabilitate him in the eyes of pos
terity. The Congressional investga-
ton Of the Standard oil. no matter
what its name at that particular mo-
ment, was on and his opportunity was
Respondent. No; nothing happened. It
would be possible TO fiji a page with
the things that Rutherford Il. Hay es
didn't do-opportunities thrust upon
him much as cloves are pushed into
a Westnhalian ham without the con-
sent Of the succulent ham. But Hayes
wasn't even a ham,! He could not
feel the prick of the most pointed
opportunity. He was the SHINING exem-
plar of al the "Do-Nothing Presi-
dents' that ave succeeded him.
Space is wasted upon that fellow.
Reyering the n OF Tlden as
most of us do, doubt, like the shadoW
of the genie from the fisherman's bot
tie. rises as to what he would have
done. Perhaps it is as we'll for the
sake of his future place in American
history that we remember him Gas
we do Nathan Hale) for his last po-
litical words: Il will not buy the vote
of Oregon or any other State" Daniel
S. Dickens had declined the Presi-
dency and somebody had said before
Tilden's day, I'D rather be right than
be President" but the sage of Gray
stone made that phrase his own.
The standard Oil was born.
Tell us one thing that Garfield did?
He made a stab at destroying the
CONGRESSIONAL Rule" and Senatorial
Courtesy" but while he was fighting
a battle for Mr.. Blame and Mr.. Reid
against Roscoe Conkling the Pacific
railroads were d~efaulting in their pay
ments of interests and the landsharks
from all parts of the world were grab
bling the public domain. Carl Schurtz
under Hayes. had made an irreSolute
effort to check the despOilment of the
public lands. but it had been aborted.
just as did every movement in be-
half of the people against the corpor
atoms. His incumbency of the Interior
Department was the only ray in
twenty years of administration for
the people.
Arthur hadn't time for the public in
terests. There were reasons that need
not be mentioned, but they are con-
elusive; they reflect not upon his in
tegrity but as tributes to his heart.
He was a "Do-Nothing President all
the same. Alas. would Blame have
been any better than Garfield, or than
the really able man who succeeded
Arthur? 1 don't know.
Meanwhile the trusts were grow
ing.
MOI since the advent of lincoln to
the White House did any man enter
it with opportunities equal to those
of Grover Cleveland. He was endowed
with an independence never before
eaualed until the recent election of
Theodore Roosevelt. And he did
many things. He couldn't control a
Congress of his own party, which went
farther in tariff revision that he de-
sired. But he favored the railroads
~~foo 90 90 -, +In~.- - fnr
determinations in freight rates: He
could ave had a rate bill passed that
would ave regulated" prices so that
the farmers of one State WOul not
nave suffered for the benefit of those
of another State. Apparently. his OPP
portunity in this respect was over
looked. Considering his two terms as
one oppOrtunity-although the Harrl-
son administration separated hem
it may be safely said that his second
four years marked him as a much
greater figure in history than did his
first term-although it will be subject
to harsher criticism. n placing OF
the bonds in Wall Street, to protect
the gold reserve. laid the foundation
of the fortune for the most audacious
fnancier-outside the Rockefeller
group-that this country knows today.
Up to that time, even Jay Gould never
had lac a turn" of equal magnitude
nowadays, 1T would not be mentioned
~ oIAAS ~
single Underwriting" With the
Equitable Insurance Company cabal
incident of that kind have recently be-
come more common. And. humillat-
ing to add, Grover Cleveland, once our
idol. is engaged with others In the
regulation of the Equitable assets that
for a generation were played in Wall
Street against the stockholders who
supplied the money to be used against
them.
Tho ,o0-Oo01;o- 49,
and grow fat. Cleveland cannot be ac-
curately described as a 'Do-Nothing
President but he was over-ZeaIOus in
some things and negligent in others.
His bluff to Lord Salisbury will al
ways remain the most monumental
blunder of modern statecraft. Had it
been called" this country, with a
mere pretence of a navy. would have
been involved in a long war with the
greatest naval power of the world.
And, here let me state a fact that is
not mentioned by the panegyrists of
Mr.. Cleveland:
The decision of the Venezuelan Com
mission, which was appointed with a
flourish of trumpets as the result Of
Mr.. Cleveland's midnight manifesto
of defiance to John Bull'-for thus
did a contemporary describe it-gave
to Great Britain substantially every
claim set up against Venezuela! This
decision explains the bitter feeling in
L L A as , 4 tlAS
American people. The whole play was
made to the gallery of American
vanity!
The Trusts throve.
Harrison meant to do something. He
thought himself God-appointed and
said so on several occasions. He came
of sturdy stock, but wasn't a man of
high moral courage. AS the grand
son of .~'Tippecanoe," he possessed
physical courage-had shown it upon
the battlefields during the Civil War;
but nothing beyond a half-hearted
p~retense at reform in the civil service
followed. He sOO succumbd to the
old Jacksonian doctrine that ITO the
victors belong the spoils.'
The Trusts were in full bloom by
this time and the Republican party
especially took notice of their fra
grance
After Cleveland, Mckinley. 1t is too
soon since the sad death of this gentle
natured man to give a true estimate
Of his place in history. But for the
destruction of the battleship Maine IN
Havana harbor, Mckinley never would
have interviewed in behalf of suffering
Cl1hq NNprP To tell how knOW