The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-09-23

the leading republican newspaper in
New England.)
Perhaps we may have a live issue in
the fall campaign after all. The lead
more intelligent of them, have Deer
agreed all summer that the old issues
were pushed aside by the vents of the
war; that it would be impossible to
draw party lines sharply on the ques-
lions of national policy presented by
the results of the late hostilities, and
that it was going to be very difficult to
find any issue for use in the congress
sional elections that would appeal with
any force to the masses. But now it
appears that we may have an issue
that will deeply interest everybody,
and which, if made the most of by the
opponents of the Mckinley admins
t%ration, may be made to bring about
great changes at Washington. 1t is the
issue presented by the gross misman>
agement Of the war department that
has condemned thousands of our brave
soldiers to utterly needless suffering
and even to inglorious death from dis
ease and starvation.
There is no question hat the Ameri-
can people feel keenly on this subject,
that they are ready, as soon as the re-
sponsibility is fully n definitely de-
termined, to throw the whole weight of
their combined rebuke upon the guilty
persons and to mete out to them the
severest penalty that it is practicable
for them to infict. This state of the
popular mind presents al excellent OPP
portunity to the democratic party, which
is sadly in need of some new rallying
cry, now that free silver is dead or
at least comatose issue; and there are
already evidences hat at least some
of the democratic leaders are awake
to the chance and prepared to make the
most of it.
The Wisconsin democrats, for exam
pie, in convention at Milwaukee the
other day, put this stirring plank into
their platform:
1--WE condemn in unstinted measure
the war department for the blunders
and crimes committed against the brave
boys in blue in camp and on foreign
battlefields by selfish contractors, in
competent surgeons, and vain, heart
less officers appointed for political
purposes. We hereby pledge to our
brave sailors and soldiers who survive
this war our earnest and loyal lpport
to secure the punishment of the guilty
parties
The charges made in this plank are
perhaps more sweeping than the known
circumstances warrant, but the pledge
is one which will unquestionably at
tract, and d~eservedly, the sympathy Of
hundreds of thousands of voters. On
the same day that these western dem
ocrats were taking this strong position
istration on a new issue, here in the
east the New Hampshire democrats
adopted a platform containing the fol-
lowing plank:
| grateful public the soldiers of the late
wal with Spain, ~sympathize and COM
miserate with all such Is are nov suf-
fering agonies the direct result of glar-
ing incompetency n brutal neglect
upon the part of the war department
of the general government, and demand
a thorough, impartial investigation OF
that department by a democratic con-
gress and the summary punishment Of
the men who have prostituted patriot
ism to partisanship and greed"
These are strong words, but no
stronger than the circumstances war
rant, and very likely they will be found
to be the keynote of the democratic
campaign this fall. At any rate we may
be sure that a great many other demo-
cratic conventions will adopt similar
planks during the next few weeks.
Neither is there any doubt that such
arraignment of the war department will
be heartily approved by the great ma
jority Of tie American people. The
possibility of making it a success as a
party issue depends on the extent to
which the people are willing to hold the
republican administration responsible
for the wrongs committed, primarily,
by one branch Of it.
Indeed, nothing but the extreme
blindness and prejudice Of partisanship
can be expected to prevent the anger
of the people from falling with full
force on the administration and it's
head, through the party it represents.
There is no injustice in making the
president share with his secretary the
responsibility for the pitiful state Of
things which private charity is now
trying to alleviate. He is the real head
Of the war department, as Of every de-
partment, Secretary Alger being merely
his agent and appointee. He was told
when he selected this man. and no