The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-06-04
WHY NOT END This WARP

The hundreds Of major generals an(
brigadier generals, and the thousand
of colonies, captains and lieutenant
lately mustered into the United States
service, together with the hosts of othel
officers, naval and military, are all rep
resentative men of their respective
states and localities. United. they con
stitute determining moral and poiitf-
cal force. With their commissions in
their pockets and their insignia OF
rank sewed on their shoulders good
and fast, they are not the less patri-
otto but every man of them immediate
ly becomes personally interested in the
prolongation Of the war. Just to cite
one home instance, af1irmatory of this
declaration. Major Joe Hudson, of To-
peka, very few days since was,
through prints of a doubtful political
stamp, inveighing against the admins
tration for its want of vigor in prose-
cutting the war, declaring President
Mckinley to be the errand boy Of the
money power" A brigadiers commits
sion dropped into Hudson's pocket, and
the very next ray, in an interview, he
was found declaring that the war could
not possibly be closed up, satisfactorily,
short Of two or three years, or words
to that effect. Joe as a citizen and as
a brigadier at 5000 month entertained
different views.
There is too much dilly- daIlying upon
the part of the army and navy depart
ments, and Long and Alger, together
with Major General Miles will soon be
hearing from the country if things do
not move with more earnestness Of
purpose. Within two or three DAYS af-
ter Manila fell supplies and munitions
should have been started to Dewey, the
gunboat Monterey dispatched and
within ten days or two weeks thereaf-
ter ten thousand or more men should
have been on the Pacific sailing for the
Philippines, or otherwise we do not
know what we are talking about The
Oregon should not have been brought
to this side. There has rot been a man
landed on the soil of Cuba yet. In the
mean time Blanco has concentrated his
forces and strengthened his defences.
Now if only twenty-five or thirty thou
sand men are, after all, to be landed in
Cuba to cooperate with the insurg-
ents and with the navy in destroying
Havana, why were not the twenty-five
thousand regulars landed in Cuba coin
cident with the declaration Of war, and
with SIMPSONS arrival at Key West?
Twenty-Five thousand regulars in the
cooler days Of the first week of Nav
would have been worth seventy-five
thousand raw recruits in the middle of
summer so far as aiding the navy in
the reduction Of the capital of Cuba.
Nothing has been accomplished since
Dewey's victory in Manila except the
strategic talk Of the Board and Miles
grand staff movement from Washing
ton to Tampa. The respective bonn
bardments Of Matanzas, Cardenas,
Cienfuegos, Santiago and San Juan |
were probably not worth the powder !
spent OF course there are thousands /
of necessary details in mastering, pro- |
visioning and drilling a big army Of |
raw recruits, but the navy is not raw, |
and this is purely naval fight, or |
ought to have been, the recruits being |
only necessary for manning coast for
tifcations and as an army of occupa-
ton. Whether Alger and Long en-
dorse these views and conclusions or
not, they are what the people Of the
prairies are thinking. and they will
soon be calling the attention of their
faithful and earnest president to the
reasonableness Of some of these con-
illusions and of the fact of a wide
spread but no less earnest and patri-
otto protest.