Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-09-15
A REPUBLICAN DILEMMA.
FLANDERS o. the Administration Put
the Party I'm n Bad Pre-
dfcament.

Republican campaign managers find
themselves between the devil and
the deep sea-"
The ink had not dried on the protocol
arranged between this country and
Spain before the republican con-
gressional committee announced that
its handbook was ready for the mails.
Over 90 per cent. of the contents of the
compilation was, it was given out.
taken up with the recital of how the
republican party had brought on and
conducted the most successful war Of
ancient or modern times to a conclu-
sion without the aid. advice or consent
of any other political organization.
Before the hot-pressed pages of the
handbook were off the press, the
"round robin" signed by the generals
of the army in Cuba came like burn
ing simeon to draw public attention
upon the horrors of Encouragement
by the republican war secretary. Then
came the gaunt and hollow-eyed he
roes to their native shores to grow
weaker still in treeless. waterless
camp and to tell with embling voices
the story of their privation and neg
lect. Then came revelations of the
unmedicined and unvictualed hospital
ships, the mortality and pestiIence of
the military camps and the political
favoritism, jobbery and incompetence
responsible for these unnecessary and
horrifying conditions. The mass of
these exposures have been made since
the republican campaign handbook
has been placed in the hands of the
printer.
Other facts, too. have emerged.
Alger and Corbin have been charged
with the unparalleled conduct of
sending a secret dispatch. calculated
to cause a clash of authority between
the general in command of the armies
of the United States and his subor-
dinate, which might have dangerous
~ intensified the military crisis
brought to a focus by Skaters bung-
ling management of the Santiago cam
paign had it not been for the good
sense, promptness and firmness of
the former.
Gen. Miles coming will be the de-
termining point in the course of the
republican administration as to
whether or not the charges against the
war department will be subjected to
the searching inquiry which is de-
manded by an overwhelming majority
of the American people. the democrat
ic and independent press, and all the
republican organs that have not been
Hannaized. The president is said to
be wavering between duty and the
counsels of the men who have been the
controlling element in republican poll
tics and have supplied it with its big
gest scandals.
If an investigation is STAYED off till
after the fall election, it will be looked
upon by the people as an exhibition of
cowardice that is equivalent to full
confession of the sins laid at the door
of that large segment of republican
official life known as Algerism.
If an investigation is ordered, the
damaging facts that have already been
ventilated will receive the sanction
of judicial confederation.
In either event. the criminal blum
ders committed by republican official
dom will come in for a scathing rebuke
at the hands of the outraged and de-
ceived people on the eighth day of No
vember next.
Chairman Babcock has done wisely
to take his prematurely advertised
handbook out of the hands of the
printers and to hold it for correction
and revision.-St. Louis Republic.