The Monticellonian., 1898-05-27
THE WAR MEASURE

protests from a number of others protesting against the stamp tax and We are asked to use whatever influence We may possess to defeat the measure.
 To all these gentlemen we desire to say that, had they carefully scanned the editorial columns of
 The Gazette" they would have come to the conclusion that it would be postage wasted and thrown away to appeal to us. From the very inception of the Ding1ey war bill .The Gazette" has per sistentiy fought the measure. As we view it, there is no necessity on earth for the increase of taxes on any commodity. trade, profess ion, or any business to secure funds to pay the expenses of the war for at least one year. Senator Allison, in presenting the Dingley bill to the senate, with the amendments made by the finance committee of that body, stated that the war would cost less than S4oo, ,ooo, ,oee for the first year. According to Secretary Gage there are over S2oo, GOO, ,ooo now in the treasury. If the majority report of the senate finance committee is adopted, pro viding for the coinage of the silver seigniorage, now in the treasury, amounting to S42 ,ooo, ,ooo, and the issuance of $I5o,ooo, ,ooo in legal tender treasury certificates, sum sufficient to conduct the war ole year will be raised-and that, too. without taxing any industry ole cent.
 The war measure now pending in congress is infamous. If there was the least necessity for it "The Gazette would be among the first to indorse 1t. But 1t is simply d scheme on the part of the money power to force the issuance of in- tcrcst- bearing bonds If our con- gressmen are true to the people they will resist the effort with all the power at their command. There
 is no necessity for bond issue,
 nor is there any necessity for the
 increase of taxes on any busi-
 ness. Above all things that most
 odious and infamous of all taxes. q
 stamp tax. should never be resort ed to except as d last resort. And it will be d long time before 1t will
 be necessary for the country to in- yoke that power.-Gazettc.
 The deadly cigarette is knocking oHt great number of ambitious patriots who are eager to take arms in defense of our country. The physicians who have been con ducting the examinations through out the country say that outside of the ranks of cigarette smokers there are fewer rejections than there were ua the days of civil war. Among habitual users of cigar cites the rejections are about 90 per cent. Dr. Benjamin King. of Philadelphia, who acted as exam ming surgeon during IS61-63 in New York and Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, says that the average rejections during those years did not exceed B per cent. He attri-  butes the large increase almost en- tirely to the cigarette habit. T have been inspecting the papers in numbers of cases under the present recruiting act, said Dr. King. and 1 observe that most of the men who failed to pass the medical examination have weak hearts or lack of vitality necessary to make a good soldier. 1 had expected that the percentage of rejections would be greater now than in IS- 6I, but did not dream that it would be almost three times as great. The examining physicians with whom l have talked have generally told me that the excess of rejections is due to the large number of young men applying for enlistment who have become vic tims of the cigarette habit. "
 There Is new song going the rounds of the papers and it run meth in this wise
 We won't buy at your place, we won't trade there any more you Il be sorry when you see Us go- ing to some other store. \ ou