Show TROUBLE AHEAD It is not a bed of roses to which Harrison Har-rison will go when he takes the oath of office and enters the White House as President of the nation On the contrary it is a bed of thorns and trouble to which he is going On one side is the hungry army of spoilsmen tho politicians who made him President Presi-dent and who will demand their reward in the form of the offices which will beat be-at his disposal On the other side stand the exsoldiers who have been so long encouraged in it that they now believe that whatever what-ever there is in the nation belongs be-longs to them as recompense for I services performed by them twenty I five years ago Then there are the laws which hedge even a President and deprive him of the power to act as he wills A forecast of what may be expected is found in a letter published ii the December Review the organ of the G A It in New York The letter is signed by the Grand Army Publishing Publish-ing Company and is manifestly intended in-tended as a warning to the incoming President to whom it is addressed It quotes a section of the United Stares Statutes which became a law by the signature of Abraham Lincoln just before be-fore his assassination and which reads as follows Section 375i Persons honorably discharged dis-charged from the military and naval service ser-vice by reason of disability resulting from wounds or sickness incurred in the Jine of duty shall be preferred for appointments to civil offices provided they are found to possess the business capacity necessary for the proper discharge of the duties of such offices The letter further recites that eleven years later in 1876 another measure was adopted providing that in the event of the reduction of the force in any of the Departments the preference of place shall be given to honorably discharged soldiers their widows and orphans The letter further asserts that no Republican administration en forced these promises and declares that if exsoldiers were appointed or retained in office it was for political reasons and not because of their services in the war The letter then goes on to direct the attention of General Harrison to the fact that many veterans are holding hold-ing office under Cleveland and in the name of the Grand Armv demands that they be retained The language is this Today several thousand of our veterans are in public employ not for politic either partisan or factional The present executive of the nation said in July l 8j to a committee coming from the G A R national encampment at Portland Me I am in favor of the enforcement of this law not alone because of the law but that it is in consonance with my own views on this subject Is the result of the late election to change all this We think not But already from one end of this nation to the other we hear the cry To the victors be long the spoils Who are the victors Sections or the revised statutes answer the question Already threats are openly made that comrades of ours because the present administration has permitted them to con tinue to earn a living in the public employ of thegovernment they sustained in war are all to be deposed That others appointed ap-pointed within tho last three and a half years are to be kicked out Fraternity forbid I Let the victors have the spoils but not at the expense of those victors first en titledyour comrades in arms If this warning means anything it means that the Grand Army of the tie public proposes to run President Harrison as regards offices and if the G A R is to have its way the politicians politi-cians cannot have theirs It requires a r xiw t no second sight to see breakers ahead Trouble is brewing end it promises to become serious |