Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1898-08-25

can be cut from the nations ex-
penses by reducing the army and
navy as rapidly as possible from a
war to a peace footing. More than
half of the yo unteer army should
forthwith be paid of and mustered
out of the service as NJ longer
needed, and the remainder can also
be let go in a short time. The reg
ular army, recruited to $4,000, as
provided by the new law, will
ample fer all purposes in time Of
peace, including the holding Of our
new possessions, Philippines and all.
As the law, under which the add
ti0nal regulars have been enlisted
does not provide for holding them
after peace is declared, congress
should make the necessary amend
n.ent at the earliest opportunity, for
We shall need regular army Of that
size, though not any larger.
"In the navy the work Of reduction
can be still more prompt and
sweeping than in the volunte army
SPANS fleets are destroyed and no
contingency can arise in which our
full navy will be needed. The dis
charge of volunteer naval officers
and of naval reserves has already be-
gun, and it should be pushed to COM
pletion without delay. The auxiliary
fleets should also be weeded out as
rapidly as possible by releasing all
chartered vessels. and by getting rid
of such of the purchased boats as
are Of no use in time Of peace. The
days Of the Cuban and Porto Rican
blockade are over, and nearly all
the auxiliary blockades can be dis
pensed with, though many of them,
like the Gloucester, Hist, Hornet and
Wampatuck, have written their
names into the nations permanent
history.
THE same is true Of the sixty-odd
transport vessels chartered by the
war department. Three-fourths of
these can be cut off from our ex-
expense bill-sOme at once and the
rest with the return of Merritt's army
from the Philippines. A few trans
ports and a few Of the best Golfers
yhould be permanently retained for
use in connection with our new naval
stations in the Antilles, the Phil ppines
and the Hawaiian islands. Each of
thee will have to have small gar
risCns, and the government must
henceforth have few ships for trans
porting these troops in times Of peace.
Our distant coaling stations must all
be kept well supplied against future
contingencies. Perhaps Hobs0n may
be able to raise and restore the his
tOric Merrimac, the biggest collier Of
al. If so, it should be kept and at
tached permanently to the navy.
There are also some vessels with
special eQuipments-f0r instance, the
Yankee, Dixie, Prairie, and Yosemite
which will always be useful and
ought to be On hand in case of an
other sudden war. The work of
sorting out the few and disposing of
the many should be attended with
out a days unnecessary delay by the
naval department.
After the civil war the government
sold rapidly and at sacrifice all the
vessels it had bought. There were
AS of them, but over 100 were not
steam yes els, and it is doubtful
whether any in the while lot were
worth retaining. In addition to the
enormous coast fleet needed for
blockade purposes, we then had a
great river fotilla, largely on the
Mississippi and its tributaries. Many
If these were obviously useless as
soon as the war was over. The
whole auxiliary fleet was sacrificed
for less than half it's cost, but it
must be remembered that the vessels
had seen hard service from one to
four years. The Spanish war lasted
less than four m nths and few OF
the auxiliary craft were so much as
scratch d in the encounter. The los:
in selling them ought not to be
heavy. As for the manning of tbs
few extra vessels hencefOrth to be
added to the navy, that has already
/ been sufficiently provided for by the
increase IN the enlisted force ordered
by congress long before there was any
Spanish war in sight.
This matter Of stopping the wal
cost is the more urgent now before
both the war and the navy depart
ments. The land volunteers las
called out should be the first to bt
given their honorable discharges al
the state camps where they now
linger. Most Of the others shout.
also be mustered out at once. The
colOred regiments and other immune:
should be Kept Tor garrison duty il
Cuba until the close of the sickl!
season, after which the natural in
fux Of American visitors will provide
about all the garrison that will b
needed. The troops in the Philip
pines will have to stay there until tn
peace commission has settled our TIL!
to the islands beyond all furthe
cavil and until Aguinaldo and his in
surgents have settled down to b
loyal supporters If the America
regime. All the rest Of the voiun
teers should be allowed to return t
their homes and ordinary vocation
uithout a days DELAY. Days ar
precious when each one costs mil
lin dollars"
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