The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1877-08-12
NE UNITED srxres ARMY.

The time for the extra session Of
Congress is near at hand, and it is
proper that the newspapers of the coun-
try should persist in keeping before the
minds of our national legislators the
necessity of an increase of the regular
army.
The pitiful condition of our country
during the late riots, owing to the
absence of a sufficiently large force of
regular soldiers from the vicinity of
the centres of population, is yet appar-
emit to all, and has convinced the peo-
pie that we need to adopt measures to
make government strong enough
to deal with all dangers which are likely
to menace it. Mob law is an evil to be
deplored and a peril to be Stunned, and
it can only be put down by a force
which is respected by the mob, viz: the
strong military arm of the national
| government. The increase of the reg
ular army is, therefore, the only remedy
for this evil which threatens to under
mine the foundation of our republican
system of government. The time has
come for the construction of a strong
government-stronger than flibusters
and ~freebooters without and rioters
within, and strong enough to enforce
the law, protect property and maintain
order against all corners. This is the
work Of the next Congress, and if it
fail, it will assuredly be held RESPONSE
BILE by the people.
The American army has been pared
down by former legislation until 1t is a
corporal's guard beside the armies of
foreign nations. Yet that little army
has to patrol the Rio Grande, garrison
a long chain of forts IN these plains,
overawe the treacherous tribes in the
southern territories, prevent the return
of Sitting Bull to the Yellowstone,
fight with Joseph in Idaho and las
required lately repress domestic vio-
lence in five different states. 1t would
seem that it must be clear to every
intelligent man, including the average
Congressman, that the security of the
lives and property on this frontier from
the ravages of the Indian, the protec-
ton of capital and Of life in the several
states from strikers and mobocrats,
and the safety of our citizens of the
border country near Mexico, are of
sufficient Importance to warrant the
expenditure of the public money for
sustaining a largely increased regular
army.
There is an argument for, or rather
an illustration of, the necessity Of
maintaining a standing army, proper
tionate to the extent of our country
and the constant increase of our popu-
lation, which rarely comes to the sur
face, but which is so apt that it must
silence the most ardent advocates of
''peace." We do not want a standing
army for aggressive warfare; what we
want, and all we want, of a standing
army is 'to repel invasion and to main
tain peace within our borders" We
are not much in danger of invasion;
then we need a standing army for pre-
cisely the same reason that a city needs,
a police force. And as a growing city
requires that her police force shall be
increased from time to time, just so
does the rapidly increasing population
of the United States require its stand
ing army to be increased from time to
time.
The knowledge that an adequate
force was near at hand to enforce the
law, would be a great incentive to the
observance of law. Who doubts that,
if President Hayes had had twenty
thousand more regular soldiers at his
command when the mobs commenced
their operations on the Baltimore &
Ohio railroad, the rioters would have
been crushed at once, and that the vast
destruction Of property and appalling
loss of life, which occurred at other
points, would have been averted ? Let
mobs understand that the government
has a standing army powerful enough to
crush them, and that speedily, and no
such folly and crime as the great strike
of 1877, will ever be repeated in this
country.
With numerous tribes Of Indians all
over the Territories at open war with
the government, numbering and plum
dering our defenceless citizens; with
communism rampant in a dozen States;
with tens of thousands of rioters in
arms, to close the great highways of
commerce and intercourse; and with
tens of thousands more Of lawless, bad
men, united to burn, plumber and kill;
who can fail to see that the standing
army of the country is much below
what the security Of the life and prop
erty of the people demand.
Military Music.
-,--.--. klo fpr tho