Show THE PRESIDENTS PROSPECTIVE VISIT The invitation to President McKinley McKin-ley to visit Utahs jubilee celebration in July is calling forth comments The western papers favor the idea feeling that the visit is a matter in which the entire west has a great interest Thp presidents prospective visit we shall refuse to call it anything I any-thing else unless the visit becomes absolutely I ab-solutely impossible raises another I I question that of the desirability of the I I chief executive of the nation visiting i i each and every state of the Union during I dur-ing his administration The San Fran I cisco Chronicle commenting upon the presidents prospective visit to Utah l and the west says i It is satisfactory to know that Presi dent McKinley intends if possible to visit the west Most of our presidents have held aloof from the greater half of the Union keeping themselves in the northeastern corner of the country and imbibing the New England and New York views of public policy and welfare It is doubtful that any president presi-dent from George Washington down to Ulysses S Grant ever crossed the Mississippi Mis-sissippi while in office Only two or three of them ever saw the great plains After Grants time three presidents I came west President Hayes paying a iQ h < T t visit to this coast as did President Harrison while President Arthur1 made a summer excursion to the Yellowstone park Only two presidents ever crossed the Rockies and but few of the more recent Tones have done better by the south Mr Cleveland had no use for the west his curiosity never leading him beyond Buffalo before he became president nor beyond Chicago afterward after-ward There can be no doubt that this provincialism in his makeui limited his public usefulness as it surely did his personal popularity He would have had a broader and truer view of American affairs had he known the west as well as he did the east In point of fact nearly all the presidents i of the United States have been sectional I sec-tional Future ones Including McKinley McKin-ley would serve themselves and the nation by visiting every state during their terms of office and staying in each long enough to take note of what part its people are playing and ought to play in the building of this republican empire Valuable as would be the knowledge I gained of the country Its extent character char-acter and resources the knowledge gained of the people would be still more valuable Had Mr Cleveland visited tIle west it would have modi fled his views of a portion of the country he always had erroneous ideas of and which the people of that portion por-tion believe he always held in contempt con-tempt But Mr Cleveland was always notoriously wanting in savoir faire It is always to be regretted whenever a people and those whom they have honored with the highest offices in their gift become estranged And this Is what has happened In the case of Mr Cleveland If the president comes west this summer sum-mer his visit will please the people very much and may become a precedent prece-dent for his successors it probably would |