| Show THE WAR AS AN ISSUE The war as a polItical Isstle will have two sides its bright and glorious side and its dalk and gloomy one It was most successfully fought on sea and land and the achievements there thrilled the country as it has scarcely ever been thrilled before That is the side on whIch all love to look because it presents a grand picture of which all are justly proud But the other side the dark and gloomy one That is one from which the people shrink when they behold it It is a picture of intense and needless suffering among the men who offered their lives to their country intense and needless suffering not on the tented or trenched field but in the detention and hospital camps And what has caused so much needless sUffering i Bad management on the part of the war department and its subordinates And whence come the stories of suffering suffer-ing and deprivation From the vic titus of this bad management the men in the camps and hospitals It is what they have written home that has aroused the indignation of the whole country the press has but made comments com-ments upon these accounts It is idle to say that those who are not in ac cord pOlitically with the administration administra-tion are seeking to discover a mares nest where none exists that which has attracted the attention of the nation has been the wailings and moiinings and the cries and curses of the soldiers themselves and not the denunciations of the prOs Thes i denunciations which have come from Republican and Democratic papers alike nave been but the echo of public sentiment and nothing noth-ing more All this will figure in the campaign and properlybut does anyone suppose for a single moment that any party rejoices that these things have existed that political capital may be made out of them The New York Tribune one of the staunchest defenders the admiq istratlon has or can have in as strong a defense of it asif is able to make says We do not doubt that when the truth is revealed it will show that many mistakes have been lade that some officers of the army were incompetent and too weak to carry the responsibilities responsibili-ties imposed On them by a great and I sudden emergency that other officers were guilt of negligence and perhaps of disobedience of orders that some df these officers were regulars and spme volunteers some having command of army corps divisions brigades regiments regi-ments and companies and some being officers of the general or regimental staff in the quartermasters commissary commis-sary and medical departments Neither Nei-ther ought we to doubt that in some cases officers will be able to show cx tenuating circumstances which 11 was beyond their power to control That abuses have existed and perhaps per-haps still exist however and that unnecessary un-necessary sUffering among the officers and men called into active service since April has been the result we are not dispOsed to deny And who was responsible for thO appointment ap-pointment of the incompetent officers in the various departments but Russell A Alger and his superior William McKinley Mc-Kinley And the presidents investigating investi-gating committee will not be able to shift the responsibility from their shoulders if it does its work well and honestly It should first ascertain who is responsible for the political appointments appoint-ments to army posts for there is the start of the whole trouble |
