Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 October 1894 — THE CAMPAIGN. [ARTICLE]

THE CAMPAIGN.

Luxurious Traveling. N. Y. Special to Cincinnati Enquirer. President Cleveland arrived here to-day and was transferred to the Government lighthouse tender Rogers. The President traveled from the capital, according to his habit, in the private palace car of President, Roberts. of the Pennsylvania road. Mr. Roberts is now in Europe, but his car is always telegraphed for when Mr. Cleveland wishes to go anywhere. The President travels at the expense of the railroad corporation, the servants, meals, including the cook and the viands, being furnished free for him and his party, which to-day included Secretary Lamont, Dr. Bryant, the President’s physician; a secretary’ and two personal attendants who now usually guard the person of the President whenever he is in public. They are paid out of the Government fund, which supplies private detectives when needed. The Rogers, which the President uses as a private yacht between New York and Buzzard's Bay, is- coaled, ; provisioned and manned at the Government’s expi'nse. Mr. Cleveland’s ideas in respect lopfivateuse'ofGovernment property have undergone a marked change since his first election to the presidency. After his first inauguration he punctilously paid his fare wherever lie went and refused to be deadheaded. He re-; marked tnat public office was a public trust. 1 n 1885 he refused a private car offered for his use by the New York CerLtraLrailroad-forjiis-aUmuaJ. fishing trips. Dan Lamont, then hi£ private secretary, bought the t ickets and traveled with his ehieLpaying for both »s they went along'. This Jeffersonian simplicity was not prolonged. In his later journeys Mr. Cleveland with his family, and often a party of friends, traveled, ate and slept as the guests of rail road conm panies. After his retirement from the presidency the habit continued. When he wished to go to ex-Presi-dent Hayes’ funeraFhis-prrvate-isec-retary called upon Vice-President Webb, of the New York Central, and asked for a private car. It was, of course, placed at his disposal, a French cook and a well stocked larder, all atTlfe "cxplmse of the Wagner Palace Car Company. The firivqte car of the Pennsylvania road's president, which is now Mr. Cleveland's favorite vehicle, is not ornate or resplendent outside, but its interior is a dream of beauty and luxury. Besides the cook’s store room, which contains the rarest delicacies of tl.e tible and-the finest of wines, there is a wide, roomy bed chamber, bath roorm library and observation room. The car is always stocked with provisions before it leaves Philadelphia for Washington, and the cooks and nimble fingered attendants are the most skillful that the greatest of railway’ corporations can employ and trained by long service. Before his last inauguration, and while still a private citizen. Mr. Cleveland ordered the car sent to New York to take him for a week’s fishing trip to Hog Island. Dr. Bryant and L. Clark Davis were among his coinpanions. They lived on the car most of the time for a fortnight. President Cleveland not only accepts all of- these things free, but makes requisitions upon corporations for them whenever he wishes to travel President Harrison followed the contrary rule —invariably paying his fare. The Catchings Letter. Indianapolis JeuraaL Mr. Cleveland is the first President who ever attempted to establish an extra-constitutional mode of communication with Congress or the people. The Constitution says the President shall, from time to time, recommend to Congress such measures as Inrsha'.l judge necesssary and expedient. It also provides that if :iO docs not approve a bill that has been passed by Congress and pre-1 tented to him for signature, “be;

shall return it with his objections t<i that House in which it shall havq originated.” The Constitution doe| not provide any other mode of communication between the President and Congress, and it evidently conitem plates if he does not’approve a I bill he shall veto it. | Mr. Cleveland has made two notai ble departures from constitutional methods. The first was his letter tc Chairman Wilson, which was in effect a special message to Congress, and the other is his letter toTtepresentative Catchings, which is in--tended to have, sb far as the President is concerned, the moral effect of a veto message. Under the provision of the Constitution above quoted the proper thing for him to do if he did not approve the bill was tk> return it with a statement of his objections thereto. Instead of that, he holds the bill until it becomes a law by limitation, and then sends a statement of his objections to a member of Congress. No other President has ever found it necessary to resort to such indirect methods of communicating with Congress or the country, nor has any other President ever placed himself on record as bitterly opposed to a bill which he was chiefly instrumental in making a law. Mr. Cleveland has set a bad precedent in another repect. His letter to Chairman Wilson was an attempt to control the action of Congress, and his letter to Mr. Catchings is a distinctly partisan one. In the first the President sets an example of Presidential lobbying, and in the other of Presidential partisanship, '“’hat other President ever used in a semi-official paper discussing the merits of a measure submitted to him for signature such expressions as the following? “I do not claim to be better than the masses of my party;” “I take my place with the rank and file of the Democratic party;”’“l love the principles of true Democracy;” “I am proud of my party organization.” Is Mr. Cleveland President of the United States and of the whole American people, or is he simply the head of the Democratic party? A Republican President once said: “He serves his party best who serves his country best.” The present incumbent of the office seems to have reversed the sentiment, for his letter to Mr. Catchitigs shows very clearly that he places his service to his party above service to the country. The following extracts from the letter shoyv the President floundering about in a mass of conflicting opinions like a derelict at sea: “There arc provisions in this bill which are not in line with honest Democratic reform. ” “The bill will certainly lighten many tariff burdens that now rest heavily on the people.” “It contains inconsistencies- and crudities which ought not to appear in tariff laws or laws of any kind.” “I am proud of my party organization,' because it is conservatively steady and persistent in the enforcement of its principles.” “There were, as you and I well know, incidents accompanying the passage of the bill through Congress which made every sincere reformer* unhappy," “It pre* a vast improvement to existing conditions.” “Influences surrounded it in its latter stages which ought not to be recognized or tolerated in Democratic reform circles.” “The IN cry of Democratic tariff reform ha- been stolen and worn in the service of Republican protection.” “I am more settled than ever in the determination to allow the bill to become a law without my signature." These are the conflicting expres sions of one who is trying to convince himself that he is consistent when he knows the record is dead against him. They are not the utterances of an honest man, but of one who is trying to make people believe that he is honest and patriotic, when in fact he is tricky and demagogical.