Los Angeles herald., 1908-06-25
His Veto Record

It was charged that he was an enemy
to the soldier; that Cleveland himself,
not being a veteran of the war, was
venting his envy and spite on those
who had sacrificed their youth to their
country. There is no doubt but that
the country sympathized with the anil
mus of this attack during its progress,
but Cleveland kept sitting up nights
until 2 or 3 o'clock, poring over the
pension papers, finding flaws, looking
for frauds, and vetoing the bills he
deemed unworthy. The storm of popu-
lar abuse ragged, but with grave, inn
penetrable stare in his eyes he gazed
for a moment at the raging political
elements, and then went on signing his
vetoes as placidly as though he were
writing virtuous notices in a copy
book.
Even when the storm reached con-
gress and congress began passing his
vetoes over his head, Cleveland still
toiled through the mass of papers
reading the evidence and setting forth
his reasons for his veto, absolutely sure
that each vote would be unava1ling
and that even the moral lesson he was
teaching would be lost. AS climax
to his course he vetoed a general pen
sion bill-the dependent pension bill. II
was the first solar-plexus blow the
demagogues had had for twenty years
During the first years of his hrsi
term, when Cleveland was not vetoine
pension bills, 1t was pretty safe tc
guess that his midnight oil was burn
ing over the records of Republican
officeholders. He turned out thousands
of them Probably most of them were
better out than in, for twenty-four
years of an uninterrupted official IN
cumbency will corrupt the best party
in the world. But 1t Is certain that
every man Cleveland removed he be-
lieved should be removed. He worked
over the charges against these men
with the same almost fanatical industry
that he had used in his law business.
And years of legal experience had given
him q judicial mind. He was as fair
as a man could be in those offensive
partisanship cases where he was judge,
Jury, attorney for the defense and pub
lie prosecutor all In one. While he was
creaking drearily through his heavy
grist, the United States senate, which
was Republican, and being recently out
of power was sore, jauntily asked
Cleveland to let 1t see the papers in
some of the cases in which he made re-
movals. With one absent minded
smack of his heavy hand the presiden-
tial mastodon knocked the senatorial
impertinence aside by the remark that
the constitutional duty of the senate In
the matter was limited to confirmation.
Then he resumed his inexorable grind.
and the years wore away.
While the business of the nation was
passing across his desk. Cleveland
gradually became conscious of the fact
that the country was taking In more
money than 1t was paying out. and
that the surplus was accommodating
rapidly insthe treasury. When this fact
found secure lodgment in his mind he
did a simple thing-for Cleveland. He
devoted an entire message to congress
in 1887 to an obstructive plan to reduce
the national revenues and divorce them
from the business of the country, maxi
ing tariff not to encourage new in
dustries nor to protect existing ones.
but to produce revenue, and revenue
only. To Cleveland's mind 1t seemed a
logical proposition that tariff was for
revenue and for nothing else.
But at that time the country was not
of that opinion That was easily dem
onstrable. Some of Cleveland's friends.
to whom he read the message before
delivering it. told him how the matter
stood with the people. Their showing
affected him about as deeply as the
buzzing of flies. He did not change a
syllable of the message. He knew II