Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-11-19
The Blessings of Standing Army.

The Blessings of a Standing Army.
General Miles of the United States
army recommends that it should be in
creased from twenty FIVE to seventy
thousand men, in order to meet the re-
quirements of domestic difficulties like
ly to arise in the future We are sur
prised at the conservative spirit shown
by General Miles and the Plutocrats
in whose service be is engaged. With
the yokel of Kansas aud Nebraska in
open rebellion against all legitimate
authority, with the governments of
several states in the hands OF plain
farmers and working people, the Cen
eral, it seems to US, Is over confident
in the ability of seventy thousand men
to overawe and keep in check seventy
millions of people, especially If NJ r.
Theodore ROosevelt's program of stand
ing Bryan, Altgeld and some ten or a
dozen other men who have been active
in the cause OF the common people.
against a wall and shooting them dead
is to be carried out. Perhaps General
Miles rates the western farmer and
mechanic no higher as a fighting ma
chine than the Hungarian or Italian
with which his masters have filed the
factories and mining districts of the
east. We believe he is mistaken. 1t
will take nearer seven hundred thous-
and soldiers than seventy thousand to
hold these people in check should they,
throw the power of the coal oil Kings,
the factory Lords, the iron and coal
Barons. the Syndicates. railroad cor
porations, and trust companies, both
foreign and domestic, the Lord has ap-
pointed to reign over them. These
people will continue to attempt the
| overthrow of the existing order of
things by the ballot. So far fraud has
been effective in saving the country,
but should the time come when fraud
will prove ineffective the preservation
of civilization demands that the Roose-
velt plan be at once put into operation,
and these people be saved from them
selves, whether or no. To do this
there will have to be an effective mill
tary force capable of meeting any
emergency. Should the rahble obtain
control of national affairs they would
seek to abolish the means whereby
millions are cheated out of their SUBJ
stance, and every foreign Duke or
Prince, not to mention the smaller fry
among the nobility who have married
American beiresses, would be scandal
lied and disgraced. National honor
must be upheld; these men have mar
| ried the daughters of American Mil
| lionAires under an implied contract that
the millionaire class will be upheld.
The preservation of our national integ-
rity demands it. And the honor of the
nation must not be blown upon. The
yokel must be put down with a strong
hand, if necessary. and all power taken
from him to disturb business or debase
the national credit. The yokel should
as gently as possible be disabused of
the idea that he has anything to do
with the management of this govern
ment. That fiction has endured as
long as it is profitable for it to endure.
Let it at once be disposed of with 9TH
er old-fashioned lumber that has been
thrown aside by our supreme court.
| What comfort the federal courts
are! They are the true source of all
law in this country. They can enjoin
a paper at Kansas City from publishing
the news about strike or a conductor
on a railway from leaving his car.
They can imprison thousand men, if
they desire, for an indefinite time, for
no crime known to the Law, and no one
can hinder or prevent them. At the
coming Thanksgiving let US all pray
for the strengthening and perpetuation
of the Federal Mailed Hand.