Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-11-15

| lIaluill DIS they Se6IH W D6, " liOol vi
| fght--like the Texas. for instance-can
at least sink and obstruct the channels
and approaches to our few precious
! northern harbors, SO that no foreign war
| ships can come near them. As to south
ern ports and cities, they can take their
| chances of hostile mercy, or defend them
selves; it being of little consequence to
Gen. Miles and his sort, whether they are
protected or not. They have, after all,
| perhaps a surer defense against foreign
attacks in their poverty and lack of
| booty. than they could hope for in him
and all his troops, however multiplied, or
in Ships cased in Carnegie's rotton ar
merplates, and commanded by martinets
! and dudes who run them on rocks in our
own naval stations, in open day and
smooth water, or allow them to settle
right under them down to resting place
| in the mud that fills their docks.
| With so little to fear from foreign at
| tacks, and so little to hope from our reg
ular army and navy if they should come,
| why, should the army be increased as
| Gen. Miles recommends? With all the
prosperity with which Mr.. Mckinley, the
! trusts increased taxation, shrinking cur
rency, and falling prices of every pro-
| duct of human toll except gold, is going to
| deluge the land, we shall have no
money to burn, or waste on the luxury Of
| large standing armies, at least for some
| years to come. If this country is still to
be governed by laws made by the people
and for the people, and upheld by their
! just consent and love, certainly we shall
need no increase of our present military
| force. If however, we are to have, in
| stead of this continuance of arbitrary
| federal interference in local concerns,
and of despotic government by injunction
| upheld by federal bayonets-Which seems
| to be his choce-then all the increase OF
| the army called for by Gen. Niles is in
| perfect accordance with that purpose.
| The only mistake which he makes in that
| case, is in not demanding a standing
| army twenty times greater than he does.
| Instead of minimum of $4,000 bayonets,
| he should demand at least half a million.
| He would find need for all of them, in
| pinning to the earth in AFFECT submission
| to the oligarchy of money 70,O00,00O of
| people who have not yet learned to call
any man master
If this proposed increase of the army,
| in a time of profound peace, with no
cause to fear troubles from abroad, or at
| home, except from wicked persistence in
| imbecile, unpatriotic and ruinous class
| policies, is not a movement against per-
sonal and local self-government, and to-
| wards a centralized despotism of capital
| upheld by armed force, then what is it?
| Is it not significant and ominous, that
| this monstrous suggestion, utterly at
war with all the traditions of the repub-
! lie, and all the teachings of its great
founders. and upbuilders. should come
| forward Immediately upon the triumph,
! imagined by them to be decisive, of be-
sotted money holders and money mon
| gers over the interests and freedom of
| the masses of our people?
| We have in the United States now, over
| 100000 organized, armed, and efficient
! state troops, better for all safe uses than
regulars, and amply sufficient for all our
| needs, as they have often proven. Back
of them, there are 100000 more of able-
bodied militia. We have a top-heavy
| standing army, of about $4,000 enlisted
men, and over 1000 officers; among them
| generals enough, So-called, for the largest
standing army in Europe. These $1,000
men, especially the officers, have very lit
| tle-almost nothing-to do, and they do
it at an average cost of nearly 1000 each
| year to the people. Why should these
uniformed drones, who are destructive to
the pockets. and a menace to the liber-
| ties of the people, be increased by the adj
| dition of even one to their number?