Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1889-10-11
The Removal of Tanner.
National Democrat.

had no choice in the matter. The
condition into which the Pension Office
has fallen since the 4th of March, and
of which the public has but a slight
conception, was such as to render the
substitution of a competent man for
the incorrigible Corporal an unavoida-
BILE necessity. Mr.. Harrison might
well be frightened at the discovery OF
the live facts of the situation. The
simple truth is that Tanner was a
helpless incompetent, who merely oc-
cupied an office chair in the Pension
Building, while the re-rating conspira-
tors among his subordinates and the
Pension Agents, under the lead of
Blocks of-five Dudley, were rioting in a
grand assault on the Treasury surplus,
the continuance of which would have
destroyed the Republican party in a
very short time.
1t remains to be seen whether, in
trying to save his administration from
utter collapse at the hands of Tanner
and the men who were using him to
fill their pockets in the Pension Office,
it has not invited political ruin in an
other direction. Tannerism is now
a very strong force in the Republican
party, and it is clear that large pro
portion of the Grand Army of the Re-
public is intensely dissatisfied. We do
not say a majority of the old soldiers.
Not only majority, but an over
whelming majority, of the old soldiers
want nothing but what is right and
reasonable: nothing but what is theirs
by perfectly fair construction of the
laws, nothing but what is for the in
terests of the whole country that they
should have. In other words, they are
American citizens first and veterans of
the Union armies afterwards. These
men have not endorsed Tanner i'll his
reckless and illegal course; they will
think the more highly of the President
for his firmness and courage on this
occasion. But the Grand Army of the
Republic has absorbed that not incon-
siderable element that is simply trying
to get everything out of the govern
ment in the way of money and offices
that it can extort by threats of its
power at the polls. This element,
which is very small minority among
the whole number of old soldiers, is
large proportion-it has sometimes
seemed to be a decided majority-in
the Grand Army.
For contrary to very common
idea, the Grand Army is not the gen.
eral mass of Union veterans. The
number of the latter is estimated Mt
800, 600, while the membership Of the
Grand Army was reported at Milwau-
kee to be 10000. No ties of friend
ship are so strong as those that are
knit by the campfire and on the
battlefield. NJ memories are so
warmly cherished as those of the
march and the charge 1t seems
strange that there should be any old
soldiers not in the Grand Army.
And yet two-thirds of them are on the
outside. Besides all the reasons of
comradeship that exist for joining
there are others; the order possesses
many of the advantages of benevo-
lent society and of a secret poll tical
fraternity. And still only one old
soldier in three belongs to it. The
conditions or membership are not
hard. The man who served his 100
days guarding Confederate prisoners
in Camp Douglas is eligible; the
man who enlisted in March, 1865, for
a large bounty and never reached his
regiment is welcome. To such an ex-
tent have these nominal soldiers got
into the order that two or three years
ago q number of real soldiers with
drew from the Grand Army and Or
ganiZed a fraternity into which no
man could come unless he could
prove that he had been six months
at the front or been personally pres
ent in a battle. This fraternity now
flourishes in % States, and its men,
bers say frankly that they left the
parent order because they did not care
to associate with, and they would not
help bury the bodies, and support the
widows of men who professed to be
old soldiers, but who had no military
record. For this reason we discrim-
mate between the million and quar-
ter of old soldiers and the four hun
dred thousand members of the Grand
Army.
But while President Harrison is try
ing to save himself from the conse-
quences of his grave mistake in the
original appointment of Tanner, we
are by no means sure that Tanner has
been fairly dealt with, and the Grand
Army we are sure has not been fairly
dealt with. This Administration has
not kept its promise of a business
boom to the business men; it has not
kept its promise of offices and equality
to the colored people; it has not even
made a respectable pretense of keep
ing its promises to the Civil Service
reformers; we thought it would keep
its promise to the Grand Army be-
cause there are so many dollars in the
Treasury and so many votes in the
Grand Army; but then, it is not SO
strange-it has had the votes and
what was done last November cannot
be undone. Corporal Tanner has de-
MED that he made the statement at
tributed to him that he had done
nothing more as Commissioner of
Pensions than every Republican in the
country, from Harrison down, prom
ised the old soldiers would be done
last year, and that the Republicans
who were objecting to his course were
a lot of hypocrites. But the Corporal
might have said that with perfect
truth; it is the fact. Private Dalzell
wrote to the New York Sun nearly
two months ago:
"In Heavens name, what? Say it
over slowly; spell it out word by
word, ye hypocrites of hell; Republi-
cans charge their Pension Commits
sioner with granting too much pen
sion.' Tell it not in Gath. Whisper
it not on the streets of Askelon lest
the Democrats revile you and the SOL
diers despise you for knaves and hypo-
critics. In this sign aloue we won the
campaign and elected General Harri-
son expressly on the promise of larger
pensions This alone elected Harri-
son, nothing else."
Private Dalzell is accustomed to
deal in hyperbole and as he is claim
agent he has strictly commercial, and
therefore good Republican, reasons for
wishing an extremely liberal policy in
the Pension Office. But in this dec
laration he has come a good deal
closer to the undraped truth than
usual. Tanner was on the stump last