The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-10-28
What Does tho Captain Intend 70 DO
About the Greater Fraud?

Whst Does the Captain Intend 70 Do
About the Greater FrAud7
We are GratiHed to observe that Capt
WILLIAM AsToR CHANLHR, In tho Four
teeuth district. has begun to tell the voters
what he will do II they elect him to Con-
gress. He declares that he will institute
an investigation into the expenditure Of
the peoples money for war purposes by
Mr.. MoKNbEXs Administration. He hints
dRrkly at the existence Of frauds In the
contracts made by the War Department.
He goes so far as to threaten to uncover q
scandal affecting o near relative Of the
President Of the United States:
Throw. gentlemen. that Brother ABNEn, a. counsel
for the arm that supplied clothing to the army under
contract. made . pot Of money; and as I had at times
to wear Some Of that clothing I can speak a. an
authority upon itS value. It was % bad - II was
possible for II to be, Rotten would be the proper
II not the polite term for II, and 1 want TO say right
hero that whom I got into Congress that contract, 40
we'll a. many others IN which the Government was
defrAuded for partisan ends. will be investigated
Capt. CHANIER is getting himself into
the right spirit Of commissioners. He
is beginning to inform the citizens whose
votes he solicits what he purposes to do at
BJOu, All DubJ 10 lulOEuuAblOh W
which they are entitled.
As to the frauds in Government contracts
which the Captain alleges In a vague, gen.
eral way, and the particular fraud in cloth
ing which he charges specifically as coming
within his personal knowledge, threatening
to devote his youthful energies to making
the same unpleasant for the White House,
the Captain does not present any facts that
need detain uS ct present. He wants his fell
low citizens to elect him to Congress before
he lets out what he knows. He will I'M
bosom after he secures his seat. He asks
the voters Of the Fourteenth district for a
commission to go to Washington to worry
the President, and he asks for it on the
faith Of his unsupported declaration. 1t
strikes us that it would be manlier for the
Captain to tell his tale now and permit the
voters to judge for themselves whether 1t
is worth while to send him to Congress as
an investigator Of clothing frauds. Sup
pose they should elect him on the strength
Of his promise, and It should turn out that
Capt. CHAMBER had been mistaken about
the frauds misled, let US say, by his i'm
petuous Imagination and the temptation
Of the stump. Would not the Captain then
be somewhat In the position of a man who
had obtained office under false pretences2
But that Is not the main point. What in
terests the voters OF the Fourteenth district
most is the circumstance that the fear OF
alternating votes" does not deter the Dem
ocratic candidate from announcing what he
will do about the alleged frauds in soldiers
clothing. He has got beyond local issues.
He Is as bold as a lion in announcing his
policy on the subject Of rotten cloth. Now,
will the Captain take another step in the
direction Of political and personal candor
and tell US what he intends to do about
rotten money!
For the party to which Capt. WILLIAM
Aston CHANLER belongs is pledged to give
us rotten money. The platform on which
tho Captain stands is a rotten-mopey plat
form. The Campaign Book which the head
managers Of Capt. CHANLRR's canvass are
putting into the hands Of the voters
declares that rotten money is the chief
issue In the Congress elections Of 1893.
Capt. CHANLERs competitor, the pres
ent Republican Representative from the
Fourteenth district, has announced his
position with regard to rotten money; he is
dead against 1t o and he will vote against
it every time it comes up in the Fifty-sixth
Congress. just as he did when 1t came up in
the Fifty-hfth Congress. Everybody in the
district knows how Mr.. QUIaG stands. No
body in the district knows how Capt.
CHANLER stands, although everybody wants
to know; yet he lodges every question just
as II he were not a man of courage, but a
moral coward.
Now. the fraud proposed by Capt. CHAM
IER's party, the party Of the dishonest dol
lar, is a subject a Thousand times more i'm
portant to the Fourteenth district and its
inhabitants than all the frauds in Govern
ment contracts which ever were committed,
or ever will be committed. What does the
Captain intend to do about the greater
fraudr Why is he vociferous on the sub
ject Of rotten cloth and dumb on the sub
ject Of rotten money?