The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-11
Z OUR Ex-PREsIDENTs.


 Insufficient attention has been giv- en the plea put forward by former President Grover Cleveland in one of quate scheme for the care and main- tenance of those who retire from that great office to private life. It is not selfish plea. MT. Cleveland confesses that through economy and thrift he I has amassed sufficient competency to take care of him as long las he | lives and leave enough to care for his | argues the case as it should be argued from the standpoint of the nations dignity; it is not so much what the in dividual may need who finds himself a distinguished citizen in retirement as it is what the attitude of the nation should be towards one who has served it in the greatest office within the gift :. to persistently ignore this act of self respecting justice now that it's atten- ton has been called to it by the living fex-President is inconceivable It might well receive the attention of lPresident Roosevelt
 In another year Mir. Roosevelt will join the ranks of the ex-Presidents He will then be in the prime of his vigor, with probably twenty-five years pf usefulness ahead of him. He is rot poor man and yet he is not believed to be man of large means No occu- pant of the White House has ever been such a lavish entertainer as he has been, and while the nation pays the bills which have to be contracted for entertainments of T formal and .ol5cial character. those which are run hp for private functions must be enor- nous. It is not at all likely that MT. Roosevelt will carry with him into private life dollar of the money paid him in wages, It is known that when he was elected vice-presidcnt he had entered into engagements with re- sponsible publishers for articles which were to make his inr1me suf- ficient to support him in comfort and dignity. The moment he rst,res hr will encounter, as MT. Cleveland puts it. ''the requirement by the people that the coni uct and occupations If theil ex-presidents should be so restricted that tie dignity of the position they occupy will be scrupulouslv maintain ed" We admit that Theodcrc Roose- welt is breaker of records, but evFr he w'il find that subtle insistence oI the American people, when tradition has sunk into their souls. that theil ex-Presidents shall obey a certain un written rule will be violated D. hhY to his own injury. In fact because Ii, is record breaker Congress shoul, anticipate any new enterprise on hi part by legslating for the care of cx Presidents
 An additional reason for action ol the part of Congress is found in tn known experience of Presidents lief ferson and John Quincy Adams afte they had retired MT. Cleveland assert that "our national pride should D rudely touched when we learn of i Jefferson had to sell his library { Congress to keep roof over his hea and even then was compelled to liN upon the affectionate charity of hi friends. Adams declared that when l, retired from the offite of President h would he embarrassed for funds sur on which to live and support his fan fly. What other Presidents have sui fered is not known, but it is reason able to suppose that they were cor stantly confronted by demands whic either could not be met or were m at an unjust sacrifice. And all this must be remembered comes not fro- an unwillingness on the part of il retired President to join the work; day throng. or from feeling of e cessive importance, but from the ia that the American people have will, ii that their former Presidents shs not do anything which might in a gi en case lower the dignity of the pre- idential office, as conduct in the ca of officials of lower political caste h more than once lowered the digni of the office they occupied Havi imposed this unwritten law upon fo ner Presidents it is the sacred du of the people to make its enforceme agreeable Only recently Mr. Cley land has been bitterly assailed rause he accepted an annual fee as [ legal adviser of the big insurar rompanies. position of unquestion aignity and usefulness. The feeling
 the bottom of this criticism was ] 3 lack of confidence in the integT
 of MT. Cleveland but the fear that 2 other insurance scandal would tou with its dirty stick the office he or held The esteem in which Theod'
 Roosevelt will at once he held as