The record-union., 1898-07-31
PRESENT DAY THOUGHTS.
BY G. Grosvenor Dave.

Look and learn from the armed camp
Of Europe, where, by reason of false
ideas of safety, the sons Of the people
are offered to the Moloch of militarism.
II is q pitable condition of disregard for
the highest hopes and purposes Of the
young. If we compare the condition
there with the one that prevailed here
prior to April, 1873, we have cause for
the most justifiable pride Though
blessed with a population that has in
creased by leaps and now exceeds IO,-
O0O,OQO though called on to guard g.
600 miles of coast line, and to control
), 30 900 square miles of territory, we
have not found it necessary to main
tain an army larger than 2o,C00. Even
that number more than included the
venturesome spirits who We're too rest
less to work, for it has been well un-
derstoOd that there has been great diff
Guilty in even keeping the army up to
a peace footing. We have proved that
this handful was sufficient for our
needs, and it has been cause for sur
prise in Europe, where, as previous
letters have stated, the conditions are
almost reversed.
We have done well to regard an army
as being of minor Importance. How
unerringly the instinct of our people
has led US may again be learned by
looking abroad. 1t would not be fair
to intimate that these vast European
armies are maintained in order to con-
troll the home population. That is far
from true. Yet as the nation is made
to feel that its very existence depends
upon that of the army-much as a
drowning man Will clutch at any OBJ
ject, even though it sink him = the
army by transference of thought comes
to regard itself in wrong light From
feeling Of self-satisfaction there is
the advance to a feeling of doubt re-
garding other means Of national main
tenance Then grows up the tendency
to repress the popular will and so, des-
pOtism. This is true Of autocratic Rus
sia, of Kaisercratic Germany, and of
bureaucratic France. Our peaceful, en-
ergetic, useful nation has done well to
refuse hitherto the temptation of a
large army SO far except during e
times Of public danger the army has
been kept to police proportions, and the
common people have held their rightful
positions as kings of our fate. AS q
nation of farmers, traders and me-
chanics we have been too busy to show
our spirit Of combat except at the time
that it was needed
But now we are at the parting of
the ways with no sign-post to guide US
save good sense. In less than six
months we have been thrust out from
theoretical isolation into actual involve
| ment in the clashing interests of world
nations. Hawaii is ours already by
peaceful concession. The Carolines and
Ladrones are ours by seizure. The
| Philippines and Porto Rico are un-
doubtedly to pass under our control;
and possibly the Canaries. Glorious
and vain glorious Spain is to be strip
ped of the last of her radiant colonial
vestments, and, to save them all from
the destructive anarchy of racial and
religious jealousies the hand that freed
must be the hand that manages after
the freeing is effected. Suddenly called
| into military and naval activity by
reason of Spain's wrong-doing, our
army has increased twelvefold and our
navy has grown to include 80 vessels
| of all descriptions. 1t is not strange
therefore, that the nervous and fearful
who see dangers in shadows and
mountains in mole hills. and who con-
| fuse conquest and administration
! should demand a great increase of a
permanent character in both army and
navy.
To show how mistaken this clamo1
will prove to be we need only to look
| at our own internal safety and quiet
ude and to see how it has been