Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1898 — M’KINLEY AND ALGER [ARTICLE]

M’KINLEY AND ALGER

LATTER’S MANAGEMENT OF THE WAR DEPARTMENT Productive of Cyclones of National Indignation—Reasons Why the President Appointed Him Secretary of War, Knowing the Record Tliat Lt on Pile Against General Alger Now Xn the Archives of the Government. The management of the war d epart ment, under the official control of Secretary Alger, has been productive of cyclones of national indignation such as the country never before experienced. To shield General Alger a heartless clique, aided by a subsidized press, has been engaged in extenuating the criminal blunders of the war department. The facts set forth embody a series of horrors which have become more appalling the more the misguided friends of Alger have sought to obscure them. The idiotic subterfuge, that the arraignment of Alger and the war department, originated in malice, a par* pose to make political capital out of conditions whioh have shocked the country from center to circumference, has had the effect to still further intensify the universal conviction, that thousands of lives and untold sufferings have resulted from ignorance, neglect, red tape, stupidity, cupidity and tlfe general demoralization of the war department. In this connection an appeal is made to history to show that General Alger ought not to have boon •! >de secretary of war. He v i a the civil war, and, u. . ;arge, was subjected to arraig ament before a couvtmartial which sentenced him to be discharged from the army, or, in other words, “reoommended” that he should be discharged from the army. The faot stands as a part of Alger’s army record. This one black and “damned spot” has not been expunged, and those who constituted the court and rendered the verdict refuse to change it or intimate that it was - less than just. President McKinley knew all the facts. The records were at his command, and yet he took the responsibility of placing this man with a tarnished military record, this man whom a courtmartial recommended should be discharged from the army of the United States, and plaoed him where he could once more commit still graver offenses, and extort from the high court of publio opinion the verdict that he ought never to have been made secretary of war and that he ought to be dismissed from the offioe. President McKinley is alone responsible for the appointment of General Alger as secretary of war. The mere faot that the senate confirmed the appointment cuts no figure in the shameful business, and it is but justice to say that whatever wrongs have been committed by the war department under Alger’s administration McKinley is jointly responsible, in faot, primarily responsible, because, with his eyes wide open, and with Alger’s leopard record before him, he placed him in command of the department. In investigations relating to great crimes one supreme purpose ou the part of courts, attorneys and the people is to find a motive for their commission, ana the quest is seldom abortive, hence the query: What was MoKinley’s motive in selecting Alger to be his secretary of war ? There is not the remotest probability that McKinley will ever disclose his reason for an aot that to others is utterly inexplicable. Nevertheless, the people will investigate as best they may and arrive at such conclusions as surface indications make plausible. General Alger is reputed to be a man of large wealth. To eleot McKinley president required a corruption fund of astounding proportions, running ttp into the millions, The oolossal knaves who solicted the funds with whioh to debauch the election of 1896, had to appeal to men of large wealth, and to seoure contributions was required to pledge rewards, Some were secured by the promise of rewards through the operations of a high protective tariff, by which all the money subscribed to debauch the nation Would be retwued to them by a robber tariff, such as the Dingley law. Others were promised contracts by which they might rob the government, others by appointment of favorites to fat But in the case of Alger, if he subscribed liberally, as he doubtlesg did, what could Mark Hanna promise him that would induce him to bleed freely ? He was living, and was distained to die With a blotched military record and a damaging verdict attached to it. And he was doubtless promised as a reward, for his contribution, the office of secretary of war. In that position he would outrank the military officers who had reoommended his dismissal from the American army—a disgrace he had been required to wear for many years. He seoured the coveted boon, and when the war opened with Spain, began to exhibit his incapacity which finally resulted in suoh a multitude of horrors as to defy exaggeration. He stemmed the tide and faoed the storm as long as he could. The miserable twaddle about “yellow journalism” and “irresponsible newspaper reports” failed to meet the demand, The recitation of stale history about sufferings in other wars, historic and prehistoric, instead of being apologies for the horrors Which the war with Spain presented, only intensified the nation’s detestation of Alger’s administration of the war department, in which McKinley and Alger are jointly responsible. If Alger is responsible for toe acts of inoompetent subordinates, McKinley is equally responsible for the appointment of an incompetent secretary or war, who is his subordinate, If it is affirmed that Alger should have aDOoiuted oomoetent

men, it Is equally, indeed, more important that McKinley should have appointed a competent secretary of war. In this, it is seen that the original blunder was made by the president. And thus it happens, that owing to MoKinley’s blander in appointing Alger secretary of war, horrors have followed horrors, as waves follow waves in a storm. A commission to Investigate these horrors has been appointed—McKinley ooold no longer withstand the pressure. The exasperation of the people had reached a white heat, and, after weeks of delay, it is possible that the real culprits will be whitewashed, while some obscure scapegoats will be found to sink beneath a burden of obloquy which should have been eternally fastened upon the backs of others. There is a disposition to shield McKinley, bnt the administration of the war department is a part of his administration. The faults are not all Alger’s, however incompetent he may be. He acted under the directions of the president. Of himself he could do nothing, and Washington letter writers for Repnblioan papers grow eloquent as they state toe instances in whioh Alger's recommendations were ignored by McKinley. The two men are indissolubly joined together, they are the Siamese twins of war—they must hang together —and, as the investigation proceeds, the more it will be seen that, as an incapable, McKinley is fully abreast of his secretary of war.