Los Angeles herald., 1908-06-25

was an impossible scandal. which he
did not take the pains to deny, but, In
stead. assumed a somewhat disin--
terested judicial attitude, and advised
the scandal mongers to tell the truth.
After that the story lost its point, and
was. perhaps, the only slander in Amer.
lean public life which ever died OF
sneglect in the house of its friends.
1t was fair day In washington, In
March, 1885. when Grover Cleveland
first took the oath of office as president
of the United States, after riding from
the White House to the capitol through
the largest crowd he had ever seen In
his life. When he assembled the plat
form to make his inaugural address he
was the center of curiosity for the civil
lied world.
Not 500 people in the thousands who
stood before him had ever heard his
voice. He was so new q quantity thar
not fifty men in the world could have
guessed what position he would take
on any pending problem, nor whether
or not ne would straddle all fences of
equivocation running through the do
main OF current political and social
economy. AS he emerged from the little
group that surrounded him and stepped
forward to deliver his address public
men with long years Of experience be-
hind them were dumbfounded to see
him move deliberately to the rail, sur
vey the multitude without a culver OF
excitement, and in q calm, strong voice
begin his address. without manu-
script, without note, never faltering
for word, never stumbling at phrase,
continuing unaided to the end of his
S00O-word speech, without a tremor In
his voice or perceptible evidence In
his manner that he was doing anything
more important than addressing jury
in a court at Buffalo.
No other president OF the United
States had ever displayed such unnec-
essary daring before, and mona may do
1t again for a hundred years. But
wher 1t was done, men who knew hu-
man nature saw that there was being
In the presidents chair who was color
blind to fear. Yet Cleveland did not
give this exhibition of his nerve to con-
found the spectators. He did not know
he was doing anything unusual. 1t
pleased him to deliver his address with
out note or manuscript, and he did as
he pleased. If 1t had pleased him to
deliver his address sitting down, he
would have done so without thought OF
its effect upon the audience. Cleveland
never governed his conduct by any
other rule than his own perception OF
the right OF the matter.
Fighting Pension Scandals
Cleveland entered the White House
twenty years after the close of the
Civil War. During those twenty years
the country had been governed by the
voters in the northern states The
largest group of votes in the northern
states was the ex-Union soldier vote.
Both parties were bidding for 1t In
every township and election precinct in
the north. The Republican party held
the solid soldier vote. But in doing so
the Republicans had made the word
soldier a sacred word; and many
demagogues and rascals were using the
word Soldier as a passport to the
United States treasury, which they
were looting brazenly. By the action
of the secondrels the deserving soldiers
were discredited. and much of the
money which should have been theirs
was turned to fraudulent uses. Cleve-
lands first important official position
was taken as an obstructionist.
He registered the protest of the
whirlwind by checking the pension
frauds. He vetoed private pension bills
by the hundreds. His record of vetoes
during his first term was greater than
the number of vetoes Of all the preced-
ing presidents of the United States
combined The men whose schemes
were frustrated hid behind the magic
word Soldier" and began attacking
Cleveland yiciOuSIy.