The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-01-05
CARING FOR Ex.PREslpENTs.

In the Youths Companion for Jan. 2
ex-President Grover Cleveland has an
article on Our People and Their ex-
Presidents" Mr.. Cleveland has for
more than fourteen years, though not
continuously. been an ex-president.
During the greater part of that time he
has been the only one. And he is now
our only living ex-president. No man
is better qualified than he TO discuss
the subject he has chosen. Mr.. Cleve-
land believes that a suitable pension
should be granted to ex-presidents
One OF his arguments is:
There is a sort of vague, but none
the less imperative, feeling abroad in
the land that one who has occupied
the great Office of president holds in
trust for his fellow citizens a certain
dignity, which in his conduct and man
ner of life he is bound to protect
against loss or deterioration. B.
Obedience to this obligation, which
can hardly be avoided, limits the ex-
president in his choice of an occupa-
ton and means of livelihood, and pre-
scribes for him only such work as in
popular judgment is not undignified
and ii also enforces a scale of living on
his part, frequently less in keeping
with his financial ability than with
popular conceptions of ex-presidential
propriety."
Mr.. Cleveland cites the fact that
Thomas Jefferson was so poor after he
retired from the presidency that, al
though he said he would accept moth
ing from the public treasury, he did
accept pecuniary assistance raised by
private subscription. While he was
still president of the United States,
John Quincy Adams wrote that his pri-
vate income was less than $4,000 a year,
and that he was paying one-third of
that sum as interest on his debts. He
after his retirement.
! Lest he be accused of self-interest in
his argument for a pension for ex-
presidents, Mr.. Cleveland. after &C
knowledging that he would be the only
man who could be benefited by the i'm
mediate adoption of his plan, goes on:
4 hope my sincerity will not be
questioned when / say that l have
dealt with the subject without the least
! thought of personal interest or desire
for personal advantage. / am not in
need of aid from the public treasury
l hope and believe that 1 have pro-
vided myself and those dependent upon
me a comfortable maintenance, within
( the limits of accustomed prudence and
economy, and that those to whom |
owe the highest earthly duty will not
want when 1 am gone.
These conditions have permitted me
to treat with the utmost freedom a
topic which involves no personal con-
siderations. and only has to do in my
mind with conditions that may arise in
the future, but are not attached to the
ex-president of today; and 1 am sure
that 1 am actuated only by an ever
present desire that the fairness and
| sense of justice characteristic of Amer
icanism shall neither fail nor be OBJ
| scured.'
Most of our ex-presidents have had
incomes sufficient to guarantee them
! selves and their families against ac-
tual want. Some of them, indeed, have
been comparatively rich men. But the
drain on their resources, the difficult
ties that hedge them about on the mat
ter of profitable employment are. as
Mr.. Cleveland points out, very serious
Eandicaps. It is not fair TO compare
them with everyday people. The Her
aid believes it would be both just and
generous for congress to make provis-
ion for pensions for ex-presidents. And
the amount should not be niggardly
for the country can well afford to pay
any reasonable sum.