Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-14
TIRED MR.. ALCER.

SSU6O "Vs V.0-
For 365 consecutive days the democratic
press of Montana and other states have
contained from one to three editorials on
the long-goings and the shortcomings OF
Secretary Alger. From the opening of the
Spanish-American war to the present
hour. that gentleman has been the most
persistently fusiladed individual on the
American continent.
It is customary for men of prominence
to receive through pres%s-clipping bureaus
little slips containing editorial references
to themselves. that they may know IN a
general way what is being said ABOUT
them, If Secretary Alger has kept up TINS
practice the press-clipping bureaus
throughout the country have certainly
been compelled to work overtime, greatly
increasing their force of employees, ana
doing much to keep up the price of wheat
through the extensive use of flour paste
in preparing the editorial slips for
~freighting to the war department. If AL
ger has attempted to read these edi-
~torials, in addition to going around with
the earth on it's axis every day, it is little
wonder that he is reported as being tired.
There has been enough "Alger" in the
Anaconda Standard and the Butte Miner
alone, during the past six months. to
make the secretary Of war feel like
throwing up everything but his job. The
democratic press has become so thor
oughly Algerized that whenever it is hard
up for a topic of interest it falls back on
Alger. Commencing with the mistake
which Alger made in being born, they fol-
low him up to the present time, only to
velous capacity for mistakes with his
wider experience in that direction. until
now ne is capable of making two of the
| greatest mistakes of his life at one time,
| one of which is that he does not resign
! his office and the other is that he does
not make up his mind to stay where he
is till the crack of doom.
Since the days when Abraham Lincoln
was pictured as a baboon by some of the
great editorial lights who now shed cro-
| codile tears over his memory, no man in
| public life has been so roundly and per-
sistently abused and lampooned as Gen
eral Alger. But the secretary of wal is
not made the target of the democratic
press because his name is Alger. Had
he been born John Smith, or even Bob
the same by the democratic press. 1t
is the fact that he is secretary of the war
department., at a time when military af-
fairs engross the attention of the people,
| that causes every bourbon editor who is
out cunning for a political issue to plug
away at his soldierly form.
If there is anything on earth which the
democratic party wants, and wants
bad" it is some sort of a enrique which
can be used for a political issue next
year. If it can't pick up something in
the war departmental times of war
that can be used for that purpose, What
is it good for. anyhow? Having signally
failed to work up the embalmed beef non.
sense into an issue that could be pre-
served with boracic acid until the mex
campaign, the next move is to show tina,
Alger-the man placed at the head OF
the war department by the republican
administrations personally so untitled
for the position he holds that the rain,
season in the Philippines cannot be
brought to a successful conclusion unit
he is removed.
If the people can be educated up to the
idea that the wal in the Philippines will
continue until Aguinaldo is notified tina
Alger has retired from the cabinet, thu
democratic press hope to show the weak
ness of the war policy that has been pur
sued by the republican administration
Therefore, the attacks on Alger will con,
tinue. Tomorrow and the next day ant
the day after, and so on ad infinitum, thu
democratic papers will make the welkil
ring retailing the details as to what kin
of a hairpin old Alger is, anyhow.