The morning times., 1897-02-18

Bot be all this as it may. however ar
ranged or what its purpose, Ayers visit
to Washington seemed to determine once
for all the fact that Alger was to be Nc
Kinley's Secretary OF War. 1t was now
seen that Alger was in it very much and
probably had been from the first. Deep
silence Tor time fell upon the channels
through which much of the anti-A!ger
noise had heretofore been made. Then
suddenly the movement took another chute;
its engineers were still not without hope
that something would turn up to prejudice
the Alger canSe with the appointing power
and finally defeat him. 1t was discovered
with deep concern that Alger was heing
forced upon Mckinley, despite the damned
spot upon his war record, and his old
quarrel with the probable premier of the
Cabinet, by the Hon. j. Benson Foraker
and Gov. Bushnell, as a quid pro quo for
the appointment of Hanna to succeed Sher-
man in the Senate. To the tyro in politics
this must have appeared a strange con-
juncture Of remote interests, as well as
OF doubtful application, but nevertheless
it had its hidden meaning and purpose.
Shortly afterward, but already known or
guessed at by these cunning people, Gov
Bushnell, with the haieful Foraker peering
over his shoulder, appeared to be kicking
over the traces and making difficulties
about the alleged prearranged appoint
ment of Mr.. Hanna. 1t was whispered
about with an air OF certainty that the
anti NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. faction in Ohio had
fayorite son OF its own for the Sena-
torial appointment in the person of one
Jones, who was willing to rattle around
temporarily in John Shermans shoes.
Thereupon note how the Ohio idea is
ma de to do pot-luck service in any behalf
how always Ohio politics permeate and
ramify and modify the great mass. The
wish being father~Uo the thought, it was
held by this Washington contingent that
the Forake Bushnell opposition to Hanna,
whom it was the dearest WISH the definite
purpose, of Mckinley to place, must inevita-
bly, result In unhorsing Alger, although he
had already been openly invited to Canton
and publicly rendered the war portfolio,
which he had Formally accepted, and there
upon been generously congratulated by his
friends. Once again Alger was not in it.
Fora ker and Bushnell who had forced him
into the Cabinet as the price of Hanna's ap-
pointlnent had gone back on their bargain,
from his part of it.
No explanation was volunteered on the
strange interest taken Alger in the first
place by Messrs. Foraker and Bushnell, to
the extent Of making their own local poll
tics subsidiary and secondary to an out
siders appointment to the war office in
Washington, something unheard of in Ohio
| politics-so far-fetched as to be absurd on
| its face-and totally ignoring the probabi
| ty that Mckinley had personal obligations
of his own to fulfill, and Alger the COM
mensurate claims to be considered Cabinet
possibility on his merits, without bargains
| of any kind. And strange to relate, in all
| the great sea Of national politics, poor
Alger, away off in the Wolverine State, was
| the only prospective recipient OF political
| honors whose interest were touched OF
| threatened by theremote efforts of a ton
| in Ohio to ma Ike some capital for itself out
of the supposed necessities of the incoming
administration.