The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-08-31
SOME SPL0TCHES OF GLORY.

Il
der the Republican fag.' He afterwart
limped through an explanation that dif
not explain. From Grosvenor in the
house to Oliver III. Dockery, Jr., in a ne
gro convention, the same story has beer
| told.
| Democrats have time and again been
| warned in the sepulchral tones of impend
ing tragedy that when the Republican
party came before the people on its wal
record Democracy would be swept from
the face of the earth. Mr.. Mckinley
has been proclaimed by wind and ink
second Lincoln, in judgment greater
Daniel.
The Democratic party has not, from
the beginning, attempted to carry politics
into the war nor the war into politics
Democrats have, in the face of partisan
provocation, periodically upheld the
hands of Mckinley as the president OF
the whole country, not mere leader
of the Republican party. But if Repub-
licans are determined to make the glory
of American arms the exclusive proper.
ty of the Republican party, il the valor
of American soldiers and sailors is to
be invoked, with chara cteristic taste and
Judgment, to win votes for Republican
office-seekers, then there are few other
things also to be said.
And what has Mr.. Mckinley and the
Republican administration done TO de
serve all these plenteous pacons of the
office-seeker? At the beginning, in the
face of but one possible solution, Mr..
Mckinley hesitat ted, dallied and delayed.
He penned message that was under
stood of no man and that meant every
thing and nothing. The official voice Of
the Republican party was loud for a
diplomatic solution where the arts of
diplomacy had already been exhausted.
War was declared only when the Demo.
cratic party, backed by faction of dis
gusted Republicans, forced its declara-
ton.
The call for troops was made and men
from office and workshop were hurried in
to open fields without shelter and food.
They We're kept there poorly provided
for days and weeks while the relative
strength of political pulls was being test
Ell in the awarding of contracts for sup
plies-and the contracts were filed with
rotten -four and paper shoes.
When the tents were at length pitch
ed. political pull, not sanitary judgment,
determined the location of the camps,
with the result that nearly all of them
have turned out mere death traps, more
deadly than the Spanish entertainments
to be selected.
When the troops had been gotten to
embarkation points, when part of them
had already gone aboard the transports,
there were recalls, vacillation and delay,
until the civilized world laughed broadly
at the spectacle.
The expedition at length found itself
off Santiago without the means of land
ing arms and food supplies. When Il
landing had been effected and the troops
came face to face with the enemy, they
wounded waited for hours and many
dragged themselves back to the coast
before their wounds were dressed APP
parently the administration had acted
on the theory that wounds are inflicted
only in times of peace. Were there no ca
pable surgeons in these United States
ready and anxious to go to the front?
" ere nurses and medicines beyond the
powers of full treasury?
Santiago surrendered and a Secretary
of War calmly cabled to the command
ing general to put the troops, in camp,
make them as comfortable as possible
and wait for the fever to run its course" !.
"A round robin from the officers and the
angry cutlery of the whole county secur-
ca the return of the troops. The Secre-
tary had his statesman-like revenge by
publishing the confidential letter Of the
officer who took the lead in correcting
his criminal stupidity.
The troops came back, the first batch
| in ships without food, medicines, doctors
and nurses and were consigned to a low,
fat camp where the fever had all oppor-
tunity to run its course" and that
swiftly. Again the sick were dependent
upon private charity for the care the
government should have given.
When popular indignation forced the
Secretary to act second time, he hur-
| ried off to camp at Montauk-and order
ed 1000 gallons of milk aday.
These are but few of the blunders
this "gelorious" administration has com
| mitted. No mention has been made Of
the $4,000 troops ordered to Porto Rico,