The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1891-07-03
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON, d. c., June %. 1se

w ASHlNGTON,'D ~. ", June ~, 1891.
The grandest reunion Of the Grand
Army that has been held since the
war or that is ever likely to be held
again will in all probability take
place in the City of Washington in
the summer of 1892. The veterans
are for it heart and soul so far as
heard from, and the movement inaug.
rated a few days ago by prominent
citizens of the national capital fol-
raising handsome guarantee fund is
making such progress that no doubt is
now entertained of raising whatever
sum may be requisite for the proper
accommodation of the encampment.
The old soldiers are anxious to visit
the seat of government around which
revolved the momentous struggle fol
the Union. 1t will be the event OF
their declining years. Many of them
have been here before, but it was un-
der strangely different circumstances.
They were then weary and begrimmed
with long marchings and hard cam.
paigns. The capital itself had been
but recently beleagured fortress. II
presented but worn and sorry spec.
tacle to what it does in the splendor
and strength Of to-day. with the TO.
bust growth of quarter of century
of peace and progress added to it's
stature.
Let the good work be speeded then
Washington was the scene of the
grand review, indeed, in 1865. 1t will
echo to the tread of one still grander
in 1892.
The house which meets next De-
cember is not going to be body with
which the Republican party can com.
promise on silver coinage or any other
issue involving sound finance. The
Republican party in 1892 will be the
only party favoring a dollar as good as
gold-no other is good enough fol
Americans-and on that platform it
can win triumphantly.
Postmaster General WanamakeI
and his assistants have been engaged
for some time in preparing plans fol
reorganization of the postoffice de-
partment incident to the creation by
the last congress of the office OF
fourth assistant postmaster general,
to which Maj. Rathbone, of Ohio, has
been appointed The major will, as
has already been published, take his
seat according to law, July l, and sew
eral important divisions will be placed
under him.
There has not been reorganization
of the postoffice department since it's
chief was elevated to the rank of a
cabinet officer IN 1S43.
The strange financial theories to
which the Farmers Alliance move
ment has given rise, and the notions
of paternalism in government which
it has engendered, are in the main sc
alien to what we have been accust-
omed to regard as the hard common
sense of the American farmer that
one is tempted to look, for it's first
suggestion and promoting,t to the com
munistic ideas of foreign socialism
and to refer its growth to the pres
ence and influence of settlers from
other lands. But this view of the
matter is not sustained by any of the
facts in the case.
Indeed, the slightest examination
is sufficient to show that the move
ment is wholly American and singu
larly independent of all foreign influ.
ence. 1t is strongest in states in
which European settlers constitute
the least portion of the population
for example it is strongest in the Car.
olinas, where the foreign born popu
lation is only about per cent; in
Georgia where it is less than I pei
cent; in Kansas where it is IL pei
cent. and it is weakest in Wisconsin
where the foreign born population is
| 81 per CeuG.
The tremendous havoc the Farm
ers' Alliance is creating among. the
old line politicians of the South is at.
tracing much attention from the pc
litical leaders here, who gauge princi
piles and platforms according to theil
vote-catching properties. In thu
North there has been up to this time
a disposition to regard the South a.
"solid" and indissolubly linked to the
wheel of the Democratic chariot, bu
it is gradually becoming apparent
now that the energetic and aggres
sive measures will be required to hol(
some of the southern states, wher
the Alliance is strongest, in line. l
the better element in the Democrati
party in the South had adopted
more sagacious policy in dealing will
the colored voters it would have nov
a resource to aid it in fighting sucl
heresies as free silver and the sub
treasury schemes. But the black
have been bulldozed and robbed o
their political rights so long that i
will be strange indeed if they responC
promntlV and intpl1iOantlV tn the hot