Show FIVE MINUTE CHATS ABOUT OUR presidents s by JAMES MORGAN 1 THE SECOND HARRISON 1833 august 20 benjamin har alson bom at north bend ohio less graduated from miami college ohio 1861 colonel and brevet ted brigadier general in the civil war 1881 7 in the united states sen ate 1888 elected president 1889 march 4 inaugurated the twenty third president at the age of fifty alve 1892 defeated for election reelection re march 13 death of ben jaman harrlson at indianapolis aged sixty seven AMIN HARRISONS administration BI proved to be only an intermission ter mission between the two acts of the cleveland drama history gives but a lading glance at the one president predecessor became his success or who had to give up the presidential to the man he took it from although harrlson had more brains than cleveland cleveland had a larger and that Is what counts most in the leadership of men notwithstanding denjamin harrlson as the grandson of a president in whose elioue he was born his father ans poor and the boy was brought up plainly graduating from a small ohio col lege harrlson married at twenty the pill to whom he engaged himself at benjamin harrlson eighteen and they went to housekeep houie keep ing in a little three room cottage in indianapolis tie was not admitted to the bar until after his marriage and the first money he ever made was as a court crier at 2 50 a day later on he helped out his lean practice with his salary as clerk of the supreme court ot the state then came the riall war in which ho served gallantly as a colonel and marched with sacr jojn to the aea afterward he rose to a and prosperous rank in the practice 0 law the only political office held before his election to the presidency was a seat in the senate defeated tor re to that body tn the ear before he was elected arcs ment he left washington with no thought that he would soon return as elect and he frankly de ascribed scribed himself as a dead duck th only candidate that the rank and file 0 the republicans wanted to nominate in 1888 was dlaine but he was not well and he refused to make a contest for the nomination at last he cabled from scotland take har and the contention eneli took him the more notable events of alie liar alson administration the mckenley tariff act the sliver act which more than doubled the purchase of that metal by the treasury the sherman law on the subject of trusts the dependent pension act and the first pan american congress harder belong in this little story because none of them originated with the president himself he did not rise to leadership and con pres press s took the reins all the while he nt in the white house in cold aloof ness with the cry of god help the sur plus the republicans gave the coun try in harrisons administration the first billion dollar congress the appropriations for the two beir term ris ang to that unprecedented total to the popular protest speaker heed retorted this Is a billion dollar coun try but the country did not feel rich enough to pay the higher tariff rates of the act that law was passed only seven weeks before the congressional alce alons in 1890 of course anyone who had anything to sell seized upon the excuse to mirk up prices the shop pang women roe in their fury at the higher cort of alln and the voters merw helmed the republican majority in the hoube that was the forerunner of a still political pi turn in the rient lal in 18 when harrlson Hirr lson went arton anler H victory cor Cl ePli T il Jf tetA asi CLEVELAND CAME BACK 1893 march 4 grover cleveland inaugurated a second time aged fifty alve may a great panic began july 1 cleveland went under surgical operation for cancer oct 30 the stiver act repealed 1894 july 4 cleveland ent troops to chicago to inter vene in railroad strike aug 27 the allson bor man tariff became law without presidents signature 1895 feb 7 cleveland made arrangement with J P morgan and others for protection of gold reserve dec 17 sent in his venezuela message 1908 june 24 cleveland died at princeton N J aged seventy one CLEVELAND had no GROVER more than left the presidency in defeat and settled down to the practice of law in new york city than it was seen that he was still almost as much the leader of the democratic party as when he was in tace white house in the four years of his retirement he seldom saw party leaders yet so strong was the reaction against the republicans and so loud the call for him in 1892 that he returned in triumph to the white house one of the periodical panics of the century amoto the country with a financial and industrial paralysis in 1893 only two months after the inauguration augu ration As usual the party in power caught the blame aad day after day n leading republican newspaper feh in gleeful headlines another bank gone democratic 1 As the first means of restoring con fl dence cleveland called a special session of congress for the purpose of having it repeal the ellve act of the the next day he submitted himself to the surgeons knife for tle removal of a cancerous ulcer which had appeared in the root of his mouth his grave physical con was concealed from the panicky mind of alie public and the operation was performed in the closest secrecy aboard a yacht as it steamed slowly up the east river off new york not un all many years had passed was it known that when congress assembled he faced it with a rubber jaw under the pressure of the president the silver act was repealed but only after a bitter struggle which left the democratic party hopelessly split the passage of a tariff bill divided the party still more it was such a lobby made logrolling measure that cleveland refused to sign it but let it become law without his signature after that abe democrats went down in defeat in the congressional elections of 1894 in the depth of our domestic troubles the president sent his famous venezuelan message to congress in it he announced that the british government had rejected nil our appeals for the arbitration of a land dispute which it was pressing in south america and he boldly proposed eliat we ourselves sl ouid decide the question and proceed to enforce the stocks tumbled headlong in lon don and new york and there was much wild talk on both sides of the atlantic but the president confidently reassured hta troubled private secre grover cleveland tary thurber this does not mean war t means arbitration aad that was the outcome of nil the hubbub cleveland ss outburst of plain speaking had the effect of awakening tre tr e eng ush people as never before to the value of american friendship and it opened 0 new era in the relations of the two governments cleveland s hardest longest battle in his second administration was tor the gold standard almost alone he upheld it through four years abandoned by roost of the democrats and unaided by the gold republicans in congress wro were afraid of hurting the party alth the saher people copyright 1930 by |