Daily Arizona silver belt., 1908-09-18
CLEVELAND OUT
 OF OFFICE
Missed Strain of Presidential Work
 The Venezuelan Message

:" A sensitive man is not happy as president" said Mr. Cleveland. "It is fight, fight, fight all the time. He is the target of every kind of calumny Everything he does is open to miscon struction. His enemies are incessant It is impossible for him, if he is con, scientious, to keep the affection of his friends. l looked forward to the close of my term as happy release from care. sBut l am not sure that I wasn I more unhappy out of office than in A term in the presidency accustoms man to great duties. He gets used to han. ding tremendous enterprises, to organiz ing forces that may affect, at once and directly the welfare of the world Af. ter the long exercise of power, the or. dinary affairs of life seem petty and commonplace. An ex.president practic. ing law or going into business is like a locomotive hauling delivery wagon. He. has lost his sense of proportion. The concerns of other people, and even his own affairs seem too small to be | was glad when Mir. Mckinley came to Washington to be inaugurated, and l took drink of rye whiskey with him in the White House and shook hands with him and put my hat on my head and walked out private citizen. But I miss the strain. the spur to constant thinking, the consciousness of power, the knowledge that l was acting for seventy million people daily.
 "Take the Venezuelan message. In that ease, on my own initiative, but in behalf of the people who would have to offer their lives and property to make good the challenge, felt compelled par. tially to threaten war against the most powerful government in the world. It was great responsibility, and felt it all the more keenly on the next day, when ] was deluged with offers of mili- tary service from all parts of the coun try. The day before the country did not dream of war; the day after we could have had million of men under enlist ment. .''
 "We might have had war, said one of the men in the group around him.
 "No," said MT. Cleveland. "The message prevented war. England had been placed in an awkward position by the earelessness of Lord Salisbury and the ignorant obstinaey of permanent officials who advised him. On our side there was a strong group of men in con gress who were bent on making trouble for my administration, but didn't wish for war. The people of neither country thought seriously about the difference over the Schomburgk line, but there were clements of great danger in al lowing the British government officials and our congress to nag each other to a point beyond forbearance My mes sage took the issue out of the hands of the politicians and laid it before the people of the two countries. The anti forces in congress were by public opinion, now that the contention became really warlike, to leave the whole matter to me for settlement. I didn't want war, but I was sure it wouldn't come. The Eng fish people promptly warned their gov ernment that they would not fight for the preservation of a very doubtful title when the means of settling the question by arbitration were freely offered. And that was the end of it. We riveted in- ternational acceptance of the principle of the Monroe doctrine, and l had no more trouble with the jingoes. v
 ''Did you or Secretary Olney write the messages' l asked. It had been that the secretary of state was the author
 "Olney?' exclaimed Mir. Cleveland, with great indignation, slamming the ta- ble with his hand. "Olney had no more to do with it than you had. l wrote every line of it myself; and Olney never saw it until showed it to him in its form, just as it went to con gress. It was the best thing l ever did. "