The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-12-28
THE GRAND ARMY.
Wny the Organization Is Assailed by Dis
Eruntled Democrats.

Wny the Organization Is Assailed by Dis
gruntled Democrats.
The reported intention of certain
disgruntled Democratic office-seekers
to SOW dissension in the ranks of the
Grand Army of the Republic, and to
organize Democratic society in OPP
position to that admirable and worthy
order, is not calculated to create any
particular alarm. Such threats have
been made repeatedly, and have as
often failed to be carried out. The
fact of the matter is that these DEM
agogues who talk of the alleged polit-
ical character Of said organization are
only angry and mortified because they
can not use it for political purposes.
II General Palmer had been elected
Governor in Illinois and Colonel Mat
son in Indiana by Grand Army votes,
as they mistakenly expected to be,
they would not now have any COM
plants or criticisms to make. They
appealed for the support of the
soldiers on the ground OF their
service in the army, and they
did not get it; therefore, they
proclaim, the Grand Army is a politi-
cal institution. This is the explana-
ton of their virtuous Indignation.
But il the members of the Grand
Army would not vote for them as
Democratic candidates for Office, how
can they expect to gain recruits from
that source for their proposed parti-
san rival to the present society?
1t is certainly true that large
majority of the Grand Army veterans
voted against Cleveland and the DEM
ocratic party this year; and the rea-
sons which induced such action were
distinct. practical and sufficient.
Under the present Administration
Union soldiers have been systematical-
ly slighted, insulted and humiliated.
The President has made it a special
point to veto pension bills, not in a
dignified and considerable manner, but
in a spirit of malice and derision; and
his party Endorsed and applauded his
course in that respect. The act re-
quiring preference to be given to Fed
eral soldiers in the matter of appoint
ments has been steadily and contempt
uously disregarded, and Confederate
soldiers have been favored to an ex-
tent which can only be accounted for
on the theory of a desire to emphasize
the fact of hostility toward those who
fought against secession and slavery.
1t would have been strange indeed il
the men who followed the stars and
stripes through four years of peril and
hardship had not generally voted
against a man and party thus guilty
or treachery to their interests and
scorn for their services. They could
not have done otherwise without a
forfeiture of self-respect, and tacit
confession that they were only set of
for the plundering of the
saved by their valor and
devotion. The Democratic party
placed them In a position where. as
soldiers, they had no honorable alter
native but to vote the Republican
ticket; and that party has no cause
whatever to complain that it did not
receive votes which it practically
spurned in its candidate and in its
record. If any member of the Grand
Army feels disposed to withdraw from
it because of this result, we presume
he is at perfect liberty to do so; but it
is not at all likely that the order will
be noticeably weakened by that kind
Of defection.-SG. LOUIS Globe-De
ocrdt