The herald., 1898-07-21
absence. A crisis may not be expected
until he returns.
rorrxcr ALONE OF POLITICS


ROTxNCY ALONE OF POLITICS
The treatment awarded the Seventh
ICalifornia regiment Is fast developing
Into q political scandal. An outrage
without excuse or paliiation, its inIdefi
mite prolongation promises to give the
sponsors for the administration in this
state many bad hours.
Some of the wiser and more sagacious
IRepubliean leaders are at last beginning
Ito recognize the mischief 1t is producing
upon the organization. and have already
Iintimated to the president by letter and
wire. that the narrow margin of votes in
this state may be dissipated in the fall
elections unless q speedy. halt Is. called
upon the exploitation of personal spite
and personal revenge by his secretary
of war for fancied grievances. Mr.. Nc
Kinley has been advised that his party In
California IL upon the eve of an import
ant political campaign. in which the ad-
vartages are already with the opposi-
| ton. and that If Republican cabinet
minister Is permitted to further handicap
it. the result may be fatal to Republican
supremacy. His attention has been
called, by more than one prominent leader
of his own party, to the fact that Alger
has embittered a large element of the
population of Southern California, with
out reference to their political leanings.
by his unwarranted, unprovoked and
illegal obstruction OF work upon the San
Pedro breal<water, the intensity and per-
sistency Of his opposition leaving no room
for doubt of his personal and sordid in
terest in defeating the expressed will Of
congress.
A senator of the United States, thor
oughly equipped with evidence justify
ing this conviction, has had the courage
to confront the executive with proofs of
his secretary's abuse OF power and priv
iiegs in repeated attempts to nullify the
law. and to protest against further TIL
fiipg with a solemn act Of congress.
1t was not until this was done, how
ever-the patience of the people being in
the meantime well nigh exhausted-that
Mr.. Mckinley was convinced that further
trifiing with a matter of grave public
concern by a member of his own official
family and in the obvious interest of base
personal ends, would imperil partisan in
terests in a commonwealth whose cleo
toral votes have more than once been
depended upon to maintain Republican
supremacy In the nation.
Humiliating as must be the confession,
there is no avenue of escape from the
conviction that political considerations
alone have at last forced the president
to take up this matter and analyze it,
to recognize the potency OF the appeals
that have gone up from all classes of
people, to acknowledge the untenable po-
sition Of his secretary, and to compel an
accounting. Alger has therefore been
called down, the contract has been signed,
and the work is to progress without fur
Their interested opposition on his part.
Political pressure has triumphed in a
cause where the public interest was i'm
potent. The fact, disgraceful as 1t is,
is yet fact, and we have 1t to deal with.
We feel that it is useless to make further
appeals in behalf of the Seventh regi-
ment on the grounds of abstract Justice. |
We believe 1t will avail little to plead for |
fair play when the umpire is prejudiced |
inc We 10 nxxy1-
edge the hopelessness of any further nom
political representa- lions to Washington |
as to the discrimination against the Sew
enth by the war department, as to the
to which Its members have
been subjected, as to the obvious par
TALLY shown by Alger for the troops
from other sections of the country, as
to the exceptional hardships which our
have been called upon to en-
dure.
We have little faith that the resolutions
and memorials Of non-political organiza-l
Industrial, social or
have any influence in Sc
curing justice for the gallant command
that SO early went into service, that was
almost the first to report for duty at the
rendezvous. that is intelligent
and patriotic to degree, and that, not
its wretched treatment, (
Yields to none other in devotion to cause
or willingness to obey orders. We are {
to believe that the potential
political factors of California alone have
It in their power to secure tardy justice
n this case, as in the case of the San
Pedro harbor. And to them we appeal
FOR prompt action. 1t is their president
and their administration. 1t Is they who
old us, with so much Of grandiloquent
what benefits were to accrue
% California by the triumph of the Nc
Kinley electors. 1t is they who must
stand sponsor for the executive and his
ldvisers In the cabinet. 1t is they who
Will be called upon to directly explain
o the people Of Southern California why
he administration which they elected
mas chosen to antagonize the great in
terests of a state that helped to create {
t; why It has winked at the plainest
and most obvious violation of the laws;
Why it has permitted solemn acts of con-
yress to be violated: why II has to this