The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1909-03-18
HONESTY
|. Of cleveland IS
PRAISED BY TAFT
President, at Memorial, Says
Former Executive Had COur-
age OF His Convictions.
NATION OWES MEMORY
DEBT OF GRATITUDE
Stirring Tribute Paid at Gather.
ing of Notable Men in Car
negie Hall.

ing of Notable Men in Car
negie Hall.
NEW YORK, March 1s.-President
Taft, who arrived here from Washing
ton today, made an address at the
Cleveland memorial exercises in Car
negie Hall this afternoon. Mr.. Taft's
address was not only an eulogy on ex-
President Cleveland, but 1t incidentally
referred to many public questions
which were dealt with during Mr..
Cleveland's administration.
A feature Of the exercises was the
reading of poem by Richard Watson
Glider, which appears on page of the
Evening STAR.
President Taft said in part:
Grover Cleveland was as completely
American in his character as Lincoln.
Without a college education he pre-
pared himself for the bar. He was a
pure product Of the village and town
life of the Middle States, affected by
New England ancestry and the atmos-
phere of clergyman's home. His chief
characteristics were simplicity sand d.
rectness of thought, sturdy honesty.
courage Of his convictions and plain
ness of speech, with a sense of public
duty that has been exceeded by no
statesman within nay knowledge. 1t
was SO strong in him that he rarely
wrote anything, whether in the form
of g private or public communication,
that the obligation Of all men to OBJ
serve the public interest was not his
chief theme.
ssrhe discharge of his duties as Gov
ernor confirmed and strengthened the
reputation that he had acquired as a
mayor Before he had ceased his office
s,s mayor he had been elected governor.
Before he had ceased his Office as gov-
ernor he had been elected President Of
the United States.
Retained Public's Confidence.
'nrhe Presidential campaign OF 1sS4
/ degenerateo into one of slander; scan-
daI and abuse, but Mr.. Cleveland came
| through 1t retaining the confidence of
| the American people In his courage and
honesty and his single purpose TO bet
ter the public service.
"Mr. Cleveland was a Democrat. He
was a partisan. He believed in parties,
as all men must who understand the
machinery essential to the SUCCESS and
efficiency OF popular government. His
impulses were all toward the merit sys-
ten, of appointments in the public serv-
ice, and against the spoils system. but
he had q practical, common sense view
of the problems before him. He dealt
with the instruments which he had, and
he not infrequently was obliged, in
order to accomplish greater objects, to
yield to the demands of those who had
no ideals, and who were impatient of
anything but the use of government
offices as a purely political reward.
Every time that opportunity offered,
however, and there was not some great
er object in immediate view, he
strengthened and assisted the move
ment toward the merit system.
"Mr. Cleveland's political career was
SO short that he had great advantages
| over the prominent men of his party
| whose records reached back into, and
! We're governed by the bitter quarrels Of
the Civil War As political quantity,
his history began during the corruption
and Generalization In the Republican
| party which were necessary result Of
continued power during the war and the
decade succeeding 1t. He represented
| in sense a new democracy, about
which all the older elements rallied,
both those strongly in sympathy with
! his reform views es well as those eie-
ments without such sympathy, who
| were anxious to secure party power.
A Remarkable Career.
| "Mr. Cleveland's career was most
remarkable one. BY his administration
of the affairs OF his city as IT'S mayor
he showed power of resistance and of
overcoming the influences that made
for corruption and negligence in city
government, both in his own party and
| In the party of his opponents. His
reputation in this regard spread over
his native State of New York at a
| time when such an attitude as his
seemed exceptional, and his standing
before the community became a po-
litical asset for the Democratic party
that even those who had but little sym
lpathy with his principles were glad to
| seize upon as a means of getting into
power. Accordingly he was nominated
| for the governorship, and was elected
| by the votes not only of his own party,
| but of hundreds of thousands of the
Republican party.
1.-THE first time Mr.. Cleveland was in
power he was opposed by Republican
Senate. This gave little opportunity
for any radical change by legislation
III the previous policies of Republican
administrations, but 1t did offer an
opportunity for Mr.. Cleveland to point
| out to the country the fact that our
government Is a government of three
distinct branches the executive, the
legislative and the judicial and that
the executive has sphere which the
legislative branch has no right to in
wade.
We hear much in these days of the
usurpation of the Legislative jurisdiction
by the executive branch. AS long IS
The Legislative branch has the power Of
the purse the danger of executive usur-
patton is imaginative. The real danger
arises from the disposition of the legis-
latfve branch to assume that 1t has the
omnipotence of parliament and may
completely control the discretion con-
ferred upon the executive by the consti-
tuition.
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