The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1889-07-31
TANNER rs THE TARGET.

Shortly after the inaugural on of
President Harrison leading Democrats
concocted scheme to attack the adj
ministration in detail. They despaired
ut tho outset of injuring the Republic
can party by straightforward, manly
charge upon the breastworks, and de-
termined to try the effect of concentra-
ton upon isolated spots, with the hope
that they would be able to bowl over
the outposts or separate batteries one
by one, and thus discredit the admins
tration. They argued that the Presi-
dent would easily succumb TO assaults
of this character and lose faith in his
own appointees. Corporal Tanner,
owing TO the nature of his duties and
the difficulty of outlining policy upon
the crude and confused odds and ends
bequeathed 10 him by Democratic
administration, was selected as the
first victim.
The work of the Pension Bureau
was the favorite mark for the Gibes and
sneers of Cleveland, and it was nat
ural for, his disappointed followers to
turn their arrows in this direction
Tanner has ever since been the target
of the smugwump and Democratic
press. The assault has been skillfully
engineered. Nothing that falsehood
could invent or malice distort TO injure
the energetic Commissioner of Pen
sions has been overlooked, and all has
been ingeniously contrived to create an
impression that there was public de-
mand for Tanners removal. Presi-
l.. e..
to estimate these attacks at their real
value, and it will be we'll for the adj
ministration if it fully realizes the sig
niticance of the conspiracy; for just as
surely as one victim is yielded to this
dishonest clamor will another head be
demanded, and demanded with all the
more brazen assurance because of its
success in the first instance
Corporal Tanner is attacked for do
ing his duty and practically enforcing
that portion of the Republican plat
form which insists upon proper recog-
milton OF the soldiers services to the
country, and so long as he confines his
energies TO this work he should be
steadfastly upheld. Any soldier who
became the victim of casualty or dis
ease while fighting for the country
should be maintained by the Govern
ment, either in home or by an ade-
| quate pension. This Is not only an
obligation but sacred duty, and the
pension is not a tax, but a quid pro
J quo, which people pay for inestimable
| benefits received. All the people
could have enlisted and run the risk
of being manned and diseased in saw
ing the life of the nation, but they
didn't, and the man who did and suf-
fered for it asks as a right that he be
taken care of. if, through the exigen-
cies of war, he is unable to take care
of himself.
This appears to be the keynote of
Tanners policy, and with it he couples
design to weed out the pension lists
and strike from them every hummer
whose name has been surreptitiously
placed upon them through political in
trigue or the connivance of dishonest
agents. 1t is this policy which the
mugwumps and the Democratic press
is insidiously attacking by means of
venomous personal onslaughts upon
Tanner. 1t is proposed to beat down
Tanner and then go for the next sus-
picious parapet in the outworks of the
administration, but we do not believe
that the President will be the instru-
ment of the Democratic conspirators,
and their scheme will, we hope, meet
the fate it deserves Bdltimor Amer
lean.