Hartford labor., 1894-10-20
Up With the Standard of the
 Socialist Labor Pressg
EDITORIAL.
AMERICAN MIITARISM AND THE
 MODERN LABOR MOVEMENT.

AMERICAN MILITARISM AND THE
 MODERN LABOR MOVEMENT.
 The masses of working people of this country are still asleep. They do not see the great danger that confronts our Republican institutions and the prepara- tions for a bloody social war made by our Capitalist pIutocracy against the mill lions of wealth-producers.
 Major General schofield has just made to the Secretary of War his report of the operation of the army during the last year. AS Gen. Schofield is determined to retire next year he thought it advisable to make certain recommendations concern ing the future development of militarisru in America During a large part of the year," the report says. "the army has been employed in the suppression of do- nestle violence, which took the form in many instances of forcible resistance to the execution of the laws of the United States, seizure or destruction of property under the care of United States officers, and open defiance of national authority. -vi1ese~ frvst iia6sei in@tlaeir character, spread at length to about one- half in number and two-thirds in area of all the States and Territories including Alaska. So widespread and formidable an insurrection called for the vigorous action dictated by the President.
 At the City of Chicago, resistance to law assumed such formidable proportions that it was necessary to concentrate at that place nearly all the army forces that could be made available, from all parts of the country, while on the Pacific Coast the Navy Department placed at the dis posal of the department commander the naval and marine forces at the Mare Island Navy Yard, and those forces rem nered valuable services. It would seem unnecessary to point out the fact that any force like the militia of State, or the police of city, acting primarily under another authority, though highly efficient m their appropriate service, cannot be made reliable instrument for the prompt and effective execution of the laws of the United States. Manifestly, every gov ernment should have an adequate force of its own for the execution of its own laws, no less than the judicial and execu- tive officers necessary for the same pur- time squarely confronted with the neces- sity of making adequate provision, not only for defense against any possible for 1 eign aggression, but also for defense 1 against domestic violence in the form of l forcible resistance to the laws of the | United States. A just estimate of those | means of defense requires consideration of ! the vast extent of the United States, and l the great amount of property widely dis | persed throughout this territory, either belonging to the United States, in such condition as to be under the protec- tion of the national Government. When these facts are duly considered,it becomes manifest that the present strength of the army is not adequate to the performance of the service which may at any time be required It is also worthy of remark that more than once in the last summer an infuriatcd mob in a single city was twice as formidable in number and capa- bIe of doing vastly greater injury to life and property as the most formidable con- bination of Indian warriors that ever confronted the army in this country In other words, the army has recently been required to deal with an enemy far more numerous and dangerous to the country than any savage enemy which it has Mere tofore been called upon to meet. It Is not a good military system in which the Executive has no authority whatever to increase the effective strength of the army in time of need, but must await the slow process of legislation for that purpose.
 .sWise forethought, in an apparent an +icipation of such conditions as those which have confronted the Government during the last year, dictated several wears ago the establishment under au- shority of Congress, of large military hosts near the great business and rail- wav centers of the country. Several or these large posts are now in condition +o be occupied by troops, while others are in process of construction, and few others are still demanded, for which IL IS