The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-03-20

! pOiAlAk1lClllS dAA ANOCtANAiASAANS % NA"|A1 VI
it doubtless comes Of a respectable
and citizenly disapproval of what, at
| president, you nave done n failed
to do. Nevertheless, we are quite sure
that in respect of the real feeling of
| the mass of your countrymen toward
you the tone of the press and other
| organ of public sentiment is a better
criterion than the returns of the cleo
ton. AS you fortunately possess a
sense Of humor, we venture to assure
you that we, the people, have voted
you out of office with much the same
friendliness with which we called you
to our highest service.
Here, you will agree, is matter for
reflection. An epigram promptly sug-
/ gests itself: The man is popular, but
not the president. But we do not like
epigrams. They get rid Of difficulties:
they do not solve them. This one does
rot explain the disappointment Of
your administration. For 1t has been
a disappointment, a great disappoint-
ment. With your admirable candor
You have frankly told us that you
yourself share with us all precisely
that feeling about it.
Why, then, has 1t been a disappoint-
ment?
Assured Of our liking, you will not
resent our cognizance Of the harshest
1 Wow VI LIE IIidlLCis ll1dCGOs yOu law
come near taking it yourself, for from
the beginning you have expressed
doubts of your fitness for the presi-
dency, along with the preference for
another kind Of public se~rvice-name-
ly, the judicial. Looking at the mat
ter broadly, we feel bound to agree
with you, though we nevertheless ad-
mire rather than merely depreciate
the several, decisions you have made
- - -. kr-N - s % tyD1V4 Nyrya en1f
knowledge; for we believe that you
took the presidency, as you took the
governorship of the Philippines, from
a sense of duty and not from prefer
ence. Still, we dc agree with you, and
mainly for the reason you yourself
have given-to-wt that you are not
a politician.
Do not mistake us; we mean no fat
terry; we use the word in it's proper
sense, and not at all as a term of re-
proach.. For four years politics has
been your business; and it is not a
low business 1t isgreallysa nigh and
noble business. That low e gov
erned by low motives, constantly en-
gage in it does not prove the contrary
The abuse of political skill by such
men - the Cardinal A~ntonelIis, the
Marats, the Burrs and Quays and
Platts-makes no case against the
SplSllulu use vi ~ 4Ol LlAS "SlAdI VI
great communities, by the Cayours
and Bismarcks, the Gladstones and
Jeffersons and Lincolns.
That skill, that art, for it Is an art,
you clearly have M possessed. The
i want Of 1t is quite as apparent in the
most praiseworthy as in the least de-
feasible of your presidential endeavors
When you set yourself, to establish the
entirely sound policy of reciprocity
with Canada, you defended it with an
indiscretion Of speech that potently
helped its enemies to defeat it. When,
with the best of motives, you essayed
to conciliate the south, o fatuously
continued to listen to %counsels which
you should nave known would be fatal
to that patriotic enterprise. Worst OF
all, after fully committing yourself to
the plan of an homes republican re-
vision of the tariff and leading the
country to expect, as you yourself ex-
pected, that it would be a revision
downward, O put yourself n your
policy into the hands of men whom
every instinct of a true politician would
have prompted, you to distrust. Their
you capped the climax by accepting, al
the worst moment, the worst conceiv.
able advice, and in violation Of you
own good nature, your own Of
Justice, you used your power of patron.
age against men you should have
trusted and in behalf of men who haG
undone you. 1t was a thing to make
the angels weep. We cannot forbeal
reminding you--though perhaps yoI
of your career, we fairly went on oul
knees to you to take the opposite
course. .-
1t was lamentable. To great mum.
bers of your countrymen it was aIsC
the cruelest of political surprises. Fol
they had known o as an admirable
Judge; competent critics have said. q
great judge. But to review action ju,
dicially, justly, is one thing; to us
good judgment In the stress of actor
is another ~thing-and the higher o
these two gifts you nave not displayed
You have also failed to display Ger.
tain other gifts that go to make {
great executive, a great maj of af.
fairs, a great politician. You hav'
shown good sense, but not inspiration,
sound principals, but not the grand
style in presenting and defending
them; you have power of clear an
reasonable speech, but none of thu
eloquence that stirs the blood ant
moistens the eyelids; you win men'i
liking, but not their devotion.
And yet, by the irony of fate, 1t wal
your lot to face a situation from which
only a very great politician could hav,
t emerged with credit! You were tn,
, leader of a party which had lost it
pristine virtue, which had fallen unde
!, evil influences, which was alread.
|, breaking into bitterly hostile factions
, You were the chosen heir of a grea
political chartlan, who thus left yol
to face the dangers he had himseI
, avoided; of a man who. having sow
the wind, permitted you, in the nam,
of friendship, to reap the whirlwind.
: Well, you have reaped it; in the Ian
guage Of the streets, which even Shak
spere sometimes found indispensable
! you have "got what was coming t,
you" Your party is disrupted. You
|. administration is accounted a failure
And the man whom you thought you
|, best friend, and who had the most Il
! do with your elevation, has sought t
win his own way back into power OF
the strength of your discontinue.
: why, then, do you ask, are not WI
also, and others like us, since we be.
gan as your good wishers, now re.
J preaching you? The best answer, Mr.
: President, IS the smile on your owl
! lips. the twinkle in your eye, the un,
! diminished sanity of your entire de
pertinent. You have lost, but YOU ar,
q good loser. You have been humiIiat
. ed, but you have not whined or whim
] pered or sunk into melancholy. Bes
: of all, YOU have not sought to throw