The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-20
RIDICULE OF VETERANS.
Democrats OVERRIDING the War-Sensa-
ton Business.

Washington Post.
Republicans are not likely to be STAN
peded by the Democratic outcry against
plans are being carried out for a campaign
OF education along that line. Plenty of ht-
erature will be distributed, as far as it can
DO obtained, bearing on these particular
points, and from this time on a great deal
Will be heard from the stump in comparison
of the situation recently and during the war
between the States. The managers at Re-
publican headquarters realize to man that
there is a hard fight before Them probably
all of them would admit in private that the
Democratic prospects are altogether too
good just at present. 1t should be remem-
bered, on the other hand. that Democratic
victory in the congressional elections was
figured out during September and early Oc-
tober of 1894 and likewise in 1886. AT that
particular period in both campaigns 1t
seemed to all party leaders that the tide
was running in favor of the Democrats, but
in both campaigns, after six or seven weeks
OF heroic work, the Republicans won out on
votes.
Not a little reliance will be put on the
veterans of the civil war to counteract the
present hue and cry about the alleged NAL
treatment of volunteers. They alone are
the men who can speak from an experience
in military campaigning, by the side or
which this war has been almost picnic.
And, fortunately for the Republicans there
are many veterans within their party
who have the qualifications for active and
effective stump speaking Their testimony
will be beyond impeachment and Will be
supplemented by the record of Democrats
1.-THE Democrats" said Representative
Hull, chairman of the Republican executive
committee, might have had pretty good
thing in their cutlery against the conduct
OF the war, but, like nearly everything they
undertake, they have overdone it. The cam
paign of eXaggegration is already having its
counter effect in the ridicule from the vet
Grams of the last war. AS the soldiers in
this war return home we shall begin to hear
the term poor little pets applied to them
by men who fought thirty-nve years ago.
r viii you dare to leave your mammasY is
the question that these same soldiers will
be asking OF the complaining volunteers,
and | think we shall rapidly hear less and
less from the volunteers about the way the
government treated them.
The Iowa legislator, IL should be remem-
bered has himself seen real military service.
When twenty-one years old he enlisted i'll
the TWenty-third Iowa Infantry, was pro-
NOTED to first lieutenant and captain, and
received a wound while charging on in
trenchments at Black river in May. 1868.
There is considerable talk about Pullman
cars for the soldiers, and it is right they
should have Them added Mr.. Hull But |
remember when Union troops We're glad
murmuring about it, l have seen cavalry
regiments transported with the horses inside
the freight cars and the men riding on top
of the cars. There was no complaint about
that.
Some of our men were transported on fiat
cars" said Major Clark, the veteran cor
respondent of the New ork Tribune, who
saw valiant service in the civil war in
Wisconsin regiment.
Il am gong 10 take a DOA OF army Td-
lions to Iowa with me- continued Mr..
Hull. Il shall distribute them among the
old soldiers of my district. so that they
can see for themselves what the volunteers
had to eat. i think the ration is good one,
generally much better than we used to have.
or course, there may have been inefficient
officers. Some of the quartermaSter ser
geants of volunteer regiments did not know
even what rations they were legally entitled
to- In the army quartermasters get just
what they make requistion for within the
laws, and no more. The ignorance or in
difference of volunteer officers has, in my
opinion, been responsible for much of the
sic1neSs in the army camps. Where the
men have been taught to look out for them
selves, and where the camps have been in
very low One of the Illinois regiments,
notice, lost only two men.
lone thing tnat stands out prominently,
added Mr.. Hull, lis the popularity of Pres
ident Mckinley. Whatever inetficiency there
may have been on the part of inexperienced
officers and the hardshipS incident to the
Waging of great war, tor which the Ma
ton was unprepared, have not shaken the
confidence of the people in him. Even down
in Virginia | am told that the people re-
fuse to believe that he has waged the war
for party advantage, and Virginia is quite
a Democratic stronghold. He was loath to
men: but when he entered upon 1t, he prose-
cuted the war vigorously and to a success
full end. The President is popular in all
parts Of the country. President Lincoln s
fame has increased year by year since the
war / believe that President Mckinley is
far more popular to-day than Lincoln was
during the civil war;