Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-08
Fifty Years Ago
In The Star

James A. Garfield was inaugursted
President Of the United States March 4,
Real Meaning of ago ago. An i'm.
the Inauguration. N = E T as E sn 7 Is
Washington for the Ceremonial and
pageant of escort. Puck, the humorous
affair in its current issue, and The Star,
in its issue Of March 4. thus took ex-
ceptions to the comic papers" pictorial
reference to the occasion.
Puck sets his Satirical little face
against so much pageantry and pother
over the installation Of q President and
thinks it an unfavorable sign. The
little man who gets so much fun out
Of everything else becomes somber In
this matter. His view is not exactly
false, but 1t Is inadequate. He is not
big enough to see 1t all. If everybody
took the show to be everything that
every actor in 1t wishes it to appear,
and took every actor in it to be what
he thinks himself to be or appears to
be on parade; if the drum majors fairly
represented all who follow them, the
fears Of our fairy friend would be ours.
But the people are certain to eSti-
mate such demonstrations at about
what they are worth. The quiet ones
who do the thinking know all the while
that a few accidents in politics, the dis
appointment Of a few personal ambi-
tons may at any time set the control
ling part OF the wurshipers of a popular
idol against them.
Most of the throng come for fun;
to have a coed time; to take holiday,
of which the Americans have none too
many; to see the most beautiful city in
the world: to learn something; to re-
new old personal friendships; to have
something to talk about at home. If
they went into it seriously, as a comic
paper does, there might be danger.
The extent and brilliancy of the
pageant depends not so much on the
greed and corruption and snobbishness
the harvest, the success Of trade, the
prosperity of the whole people. Those
who have got the money to do so are
willing to stand 1t, not simply in glori-
flying fellow citizen as If he were
ascending a throne, but in amusing
themselves.
Since the Centennial no such OPP
portunity has been offered for the whole
country to see and get acquainted with
itself. It shows its good sense by COM
ing to Washington to do it. If the
4th of May could be substituted for
the 4th of March these occasions would
be the great gala days Of American
people. So long as general prosperity
continues they seem likely to become 50
in spite of the season.
IF Washington were what it was in
Jefferson's time the new President
would do right to go to the Capitol IN
a procession of one on a horses back.
1t would be the only way he could get
there.
Since the city has become the be-.
place there Is for military movements,
the boys come to enjoy 1t. And yet,
what q pity these soldiers could not
have been here a few days ago, when
the Avenue was knee-deep with water,
so as to have laid pontoon bridge
from the White House to the Capitol!
The Improvement Of the streets Is no
more for the good of our own citizens
than for the use of the Nation.
Every such Inauguration as this
makes clearer the true relationship be-
tween the Capital and the rest Of the
country We see as clearly as Puck does
the army Of bunmers, Of political
hucksters, of corner-grocery statesmen,
Of self-constituted national saviors, who
use such an occasion to attract atten-
ton to themselves, to keep in office, to
fiatter, fawn and magnify their former
services. But If drum major is mis-
taken for anybody else it is the fault
of the observer. We look beyond these
and see in these throngs saving
amount of unobtrusive patriotism, gen.
erous feeling and good citizenship. The
sober sense of the people does not per-
NIT their heads to be turned, or their
national character to be injuriously Af-
fected by these pageants."