The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-19
BEFORE THE War AND AFTER.

BEFORE THE WAR AND AFTER.
How different some Republican men and
things are from what they were before
the wari" Some of che differences are so
radical as to be surprising. Just how far
the war is responsible for the changes may
be a matter of conjecture but the exist
enee of a new order of things is an in
conference.-the fact.
Take Pingree, for instance. Before
the war" the great Michigan friend of
potatoes and enemy of corporations was
something of a political free lance. He
spent his time in hunting octopusses and
throwing bricks at them, with the result
that the Republican party, the great breed
er of octopusses, often received hard
rap at his hands. But since the war the
blood-suckers and the cuttle-fishes of mo-
nopoly have flourished all around Mr.. Pin
gree He Is too busy making himself solid
with the Republican machine to bother
with them.
And then there Is the case of BOSS"
Plat in New York. Before the war"
Theodore Roosevelt could not have been
elected a bailiff in the boss baIliwick.
The boss made his choice, and the voters
were permitted TO elect him. Now the
boss has been brought face to face with
the dilemma of rejecting Roosevelt as a
candidate for Governor and getting left,
or accepting him and being turned down
in the event of his election His position
is not at all like it was before the war"
The Grand Army of the Republic, in
&,
resolutions denouncing certain rulings in
the pension office, and calling upon Com
rade Mckinley" to see that the rulings
were reversed. A leading Republican
newspaper, which has heretofore been in
favor of giving the Grand Army every
privilege and everything it wanted, now
rises up in protest against this "Comrade"
! business in an appeal 10 the President. 1t
points out that il would merely be fol-
lowing the precedent established by the
! Grand Army if the Methodist Church were
to appeal to Brother Mckinley" or a
\ nephew were to appeal to Uncle McKin-
/ ley" for a special favor, which they
| hoped TO have granted because of their
close personal connection with the Presi-
dent Such kicks were not apt to appear
in any except Democratic papers before
the war"
One of the greatest of all of the post
war changes, however, has been made in
Robert p. Porter. He is a professional Re
publican statistician and an expert upon all
things in general and the tariff in partic-
ular. He knows all of the data in the
federal bureau of statistics by heart, and
heretofore has been able, upon minute S
notice, TO quote a mile Of figures TO show
the absolute impossibillty of placing too
high a tariff upon any goods whatsoever
that might be imported into American ter
ritory. Yet he now recommends that the
duties on goods imported into Porto Rico,
| U. 8. A., be reduced so per cent. as a
starter, and that the whole tariff for Porto
Rico be revised in the direction of lower
duties than those now collected Nothing
short of war could have shaken MIR. Por-
ter, and that he has been shaken shows
what great and epoch-making war we
have just emerged from. After this, Re
publican advocacy of a radical imperial
policy, with open doors"-which is an
other name for free trade-everywhere
| need not surprise anybody.