The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1920-05-24
BIT JAMES MOI, GAY

LUZ w IL ~
1ss7-April, President Hayes with.
drew federal troops from
southern state capitals.
Banished alcoholic liquors
from the White house.
June and July, ordered out
federal troops in the great
railway strike.
1S7S-Vetoed silver bill, which
was passed over his veto.
1S79-Special payments resumed.
1S93-Jan. II, death OF Hayes at
Fremont, Ohio, aged 20.
"He serves his party best who
serves his country best" With
those watchwords Hayes had sac
rificed himself and his administra-
ton to reunite north ana soulA, 70
cleanse the civil service and to re-
generate the Republican party. So
quietly, SO eoldly, SO automatically
did he go about all those great OBJ
jects that he remained to the end OF
his term one of the most misun-
derstood, most underestimated
presidents, the Republican leaders
hating him as an apostate and the
Democrats despising him as a
fraud.
He selected one of the most dis
tinguished cabinets in history. But
he did it without consulting any
party leaders or considering the
claims of factions, and the offended
senate threatened and muttered
for nearly a week before it con-
firmed the nominations. To the
disgust of practical politicians
he threw away "a high class for
eign mission on a man like James
Russell Lowell, "a dashed literary
Teller" as Senator Cameron said
and he enraged Roscoe Conkline
by fiinging the political machine
of that imperious senator out of the
federal Offices in New York city. He
would also have made a start to-
ward the removal of the civil ser
vice from politics and spoils mon
gering had not both parties com
bined in congress to thwart hi!
every effort in that direction.
Hayes boldest challenge to thu
Republican politicians was hi!
abandonment of their 12yea
struggle to reconstruct the south
ern states from Washington. Ever
since congress had seized from
J Lincoln's lifeless hand the contro
Of reconstruction, the entire pro
ceeding had been a tragic failure
creating an orgy of corruption ant
violence in the south and democrat
izing the politics OF the who'll
country.
It was an attempt, so common il
this country, to solve by mere polit
ical methods a problem that wa
not at all political The fatuou
politicians at Washington gave tn
ballot to the negro in the expecta
ton of setting up Republican
states in the south, but they did no
give cent of money to educate hin
to read the ballot and to see that i
was counted. They gravely investe,
him with equal civil rights at law
but they left him economically un
equal and a dependent on tn
whites. When he asked for q
acres and a mule" they onl
laughed at him. Vet it was tn
one thing he needed first Of all
|. and surely he had earned it b
his $3.50 years Of unrequited toll.
Inevitably the educated and prop
ertied class wrested the govern
ment from the hands of an illit
crate and penniless race in stat
after state. When Hayes came il
there were only two Republica
state governments remaining i
the south. and he promptly with
drew the federal bayonets that wer
propping up those feeble survivor
in South Carolina and Louisian;
Thereupon they collapsed in a
hour, and their imported governor
hurriedly repacking their carpt
bags. returned north by the mel
train.
. Hayes had merely completed til
Copyright, 1920. by James Morgan
with the Mcclure