The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-03-19

n control. OF the real fighting men Of
the army the praise is IN superlatives and
officers and men are held in the highest
esteem conceivable as types Of American
manhood of which we have every rleht
to be proud
The President is always spoken of
throughout all these discussions, and
there is no denying that both Democrats
and Republicans feel kindly disposed to
him. They think he has made grave mis-
takes, but the general verdict is that ne
is a we'll meaning and patriotic man,
whose mistakes have been those of
weak reliance on some weak men to whom
he has unwisely given his confidence.
At the Other End.
But there is one man who stands some
what as Dewey stands, except that IT is
at the opposite end of popular favor. This
man is Russell A. Alger, the Secretary of
War in McKinley's Cabinet. This man is
to-day perhaps the most unpopular man
in the United States, and in the discus
sions just alluded to men not given to
profanity or TO forcefulness of expression
swear like pirates and say that they be-
lieve him capable of every great crime
and every little meanness that could be
mentioned.
Alger is the man of the hour, and
Democrats and Republicans alike
agree that the Mckinley administra-
ton will be judged at the polls, not
by the victories of the army and
navy, not by the revival of trade and
a renewal of business prosperity, but
by what has come to be known as
Algerism.
Alger's Early Life.
General Alger, like so many Americans
who have achieved prominence in the
last forty years, is a native of Ohio. He
was born in Lafayette Township, Medi-
ma County, February q, 1896, so that we
see he is now just So years old. His pa
rents were poor, farmers or country
storekeepers or something of that sort.
When his father died the present Secre-
tary of War was II years old. It was ne
cessary for him to go to work at once
And so from Y to 19 he worked on farms
in RichfieId, Ohio At the beginning Of
this apprenticeship he went with some
regularity to a country school during the
short terms which then prevailed. What
he did between 1855 and 1857 I have not
heard, but presumably he followed the
plow and worked in the harvest field
much as he had done in the years before
He went to Akron in 1857 to study law.
While Alger was studying law in Akron
Mckinley was at school only few miles
away. Little did the people of that prim-
tive neighborhood dream that two youths
tnen struggling 10 equip themselves Tor
life would be forty-two years later the
central figures in a great political drama
in which over seventy millions of people
were also at once actors and audience.
Mckinley and Alger.
Put so II is. Mckinley and the Republi-
can party must stand or fall as Algerism
is approved or condemned. We will not
apply lynch law to it, however; It shall
have q fair hearing. The Secretary of
War however. In this case will not be
asked to appoint the members of the
court and select the prosecuting officers:
In those days in Ohio 1t must have been
a very easy thing to acquire a legal edu-
cation for Alger. after two. years study
In Akron, was admitted to practice Now
adays a bright chap, with college be-
hind him and service in law office be-
eides has to work hard to do this. But
in 1859 in Ohio a young man from a farm
could learn enough in two years to secure
the right to represent clients. II may be
That Alger mastered the science of law
intuitively. as later he mastered the art
If war. Or it may be that he never
learned enough to hurt AT any rate his
knowledge was never put to any serious
test as in 1860 he went TO Grand Rapids.
Mich. where he soon became Spectator
in pine lands.
Army Traditions.
In this business he has continued. and
te has always been in such speculations
what on the turf or in wall street Is
known as a 'plunger. Ihs piuhsihs