Daily press and Dakotaian. [volume] (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1875-1880, 1878-06-08
1he Daily 1'rfss aud Dakotaiau
YkhKTON DAKOTA
Saturday Evening, lime 8, 1873.
CONGRESS ON TINE ARMY.

ootuiuoy evosWuyS SlhSS u, SosO'
CONGRESS ON TINE ARMY.
From the Nation.
The debates over the army bill in cor
gress have been Interesting rather for the
picture they present of congressional feeling
about the army than for any effect they are
likely TO have on the army itself. The at.
tempt 10 reduce the force ought to, and pro-
badly will fail, for reasons Of overwhelming
weight. Tue $4,000 regulars now 10 The
service of the government are charged with
the defence of q frontier 12,207 miles long,
against 278,OO0 occasionally hostile Indians,
to say nothing of the Mexican frontier, on
tho other side Of which lies a barbarous and
ill-governed and predatory population and
with the protection of $204,6 COL .66l worth
of government property, not including the
public buildings, archives, and collections
at Washington. What Is most remarkable
10 the debates is the eager interest OF the
house in q question which apparently has
no interest at all, or very little, for the coun.
try at large. There is no sign anywhere Of
a strong public desire that the army should
be diminished or even reorganized. In
fact, the only strong opinion expressed
about the army during the past year has
been the opinion of those who were alarm
ed by the riots last summer, that it ought
to be enlarged. On the part of the major
ity ofthe people of both parties, there is. as
far So one can see, considerable, aud even
too great, indifference to the subject.
The hostility to the army, and the preoc-
cupation about it, in fact, seem to be con.
fined 10 the class in and out of congress
known as politicians" and this hostility
is partly instructive and partly due to the
notion that "capital" may be made out of 1t.
Any disciplined military organization is
hateful to a politician. because of the re.
~straints it puts on individual freedom. The
punctilio, the order, the close attention to
details. the exact obedience. and the arbi-
trary exercise of power with which it has
to be conducted, are the things of all in
human society which he can least put up
with. The military officer, too, is a most
offensive person to him. and could not be
made inoffensive In any way that would
not destroy him as q military officer. A
person who interferes with or rails at men
about their clothes, their hair, or their
beard, who makes them salute him when
they meet him, who assumes the superior.
ity of his own knowledge and of his own
way Of doing things, and who expresses his
wishes in the form of commands, offends a
politician in the very recesses of his being.
He outrages all his notions of propriety,
and contravenes all his theories of proper
human relations. West Point, as place in
which young men are taught, at the public
expense, to exercise arbitrary authority and
to think they know certain things better
than other people, has also always tried him
sorely, and he only submits to its existence
under the overwhelming pressure of public
| oy,iniop The inct;pctiva Hic)iEn NOV IN
deed, be said to cover the whole instructed
and specialist class, such as professors and
scientific men, when they venture out of
their libraries and utter judgments or at
tempt to exert influence on public questions.
The %pretentions Of the whole DO " of them
are to him monstrous and intolerablc; but
it is only those who are paid by the govern.
ment, and whom therefore he can get at,
that thus rouse his fury. For tue others he
satisfies himself by expressing a mild con-
tempt, like that uttered by Mr.. Angus Cam.
eron, of Wisconsin, the other day, for Mr..
Emerson and Mr.. Longfellow, because they
were not able of themselves to prevent their
works from being pirated, which he looked
on as a sign Of imbecility.
The belief that Capital may be made by
denouncing the army is due to a combina-
tion of circumstances which are probably
OuIy tCulpOio III ASAA OpNAotAOu. ~
( Of the army in the south tor 80 many years
after the war. in work which practically
amounted to aiding in keeping the rcpubli.
can party in power, would, it was easy to
see, be certain to make it an object of at
tack to the democrats whenever they got a
majority in congress; nothing but Mr..
Hayes's prompt withdrawal of the troops
from the southern states has prevented the
recent onslaught from being nercer and
much more successful than it has been. The
use made of it in suppressing the riot, and
the demand made for its services az q pro-
lection against riots hereafter, have revived
and given a new and more plausible form to
the hostility to it bred by the southern
question. From the theory which has been
extensively preached-that the distress now
prevalent among the laboring classes is due
to the fraud and treachery of capitalists, and
indeed, to the greed of all owners of pro-
perty-tbe deduction is easy that the exer-
else Of some sort Of physical pressure on
capitalists in order 10 make them satisfy the
demands Of labor is allowable. Indeed,
once q strike ceases to be q simple differ
ence of opinion about the price of a com.
modify, it becomes an attempt to assert q
| right, the loss of which means the loss Of
mans subsistence and of that of his family,
and in defence of which any excuses are
excusAble. Accordingly, we find several
congressional orators virtually treating pill
lage and arson as legitimate incidents OF .
strike. and the use Of the army to prevent
them as an outrageous interference with the
poor mans legitimate means of self protec.
ton; and all their arguments against the
use Of the army to prevent them, would ap
ply with equal force to the use of the mill
Tia or the police. The chief argument was
indeed very simple, viz, that under a popu-
riots attended with wapton or uniustiiable
damage to person OF property, cannot occur
these things being confined exclusively
to monarchies and aristocracies. You may