The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-07-17
A Surviving "Twin Relic"

aimed at that hoary survival Of bar
barism, prize money of the navy, which
has survived it's twin. the booty OF the
army? Long ago the custom that made
land captures a source Of added profit
to the armies was abolished and SUR
wives now, where discipline does not
prevent, in the dishonorable form of
| loot. Captured cities are no longer put
under ransom nor turned over to be
looted by the troops. Private property
is sacred from the pillage of an invad
ing army. Progress has been made in
! the ethics Of naval warfare since the
days when, as to commerce, privateer
| ing was but little better than piracy,
and progress would have put the navy
| abreast of the army had the terms i'm
posed by the United States as a con-
! dition Of it's assent to the Paris con-
vention been accepted.
This distinction is brought sharply to
view by the events of this war. The
navy destroyed the Spanish fleet. For
| this it gets prize money based on the
estimated value of the fleet. Sampson
| gets $4,000; Schley, $4,000, and so on
| down to the common sailors. Skaters
! army captures 5000 square miles Of
rich territory, with it's cities, planta-
| lions, mines, and the arms and NUM-
tons of war, together with several ships
in the harbor. And neither he nor any
in his command receives a penny ad-
ditional to their salaries. Schley won
! the prize money of the navy with the
less Of but a single life; Skaters Win
ming cost hundreds Of lives. Schley
! gets his salary and $4,000 in prize
money; Shafter gets his salary only.
Sampson and his crews campaigned in
| snug and comfortable quarters; Shat
ters men campaigned in the rain and
mud and under the scorching blaze of
the sun. SIMPSONS sick had treatment
| In comfortable quarters; Skaters In
! hospital tents foored with mud, or
| burned with fever under their dog
| tents.
! Another phase. Gen. Miles reaches
Santiago in time to be in at the win
ming of the immensely valuable prize
secured by Shafter He awards Shat
ter and his men full credit for their
feat. Simpsons first word to Schley,
when the New York came rushing back
from Aguadores to find the Spanish
fleet all destroyed. was notice that
he was ''in hailing distance" all the
time. His announcement Of the fight
was that the fleet under my com
mand sends the nation a Fourth Of
July present in the demolished fleet.
Had the law not made all vessels with
in hailing distance of the prize sharers
in prize money, might not Sampson
have been as generous to Schley as
Miles was to Shafter? When, again,
Shafter had forced Toral into a sur
render Sampson served notice on him
that he must be consulted in making
terms. Why? There were ships in the
harbor and mines in the channel and,
possibly, forts on the harbOr shores to
be claimed, valued and divided as prize
Of the navy. 1t is recalled that when
Porter came up Red river with his
fleet, in rear of Banks army which
had cleared the country Of the enemy,
Porter coolly claimed as prize of the
navy all cotton on each side of the
river within the range Of his guns. And
he forthwith sent out and brought it
in and loaded his boats with 1t.
And why should this Anticipated and
unjust discrimination continue to ex-
list? Will men not serve as well, fight
as hard, endure as much without as
with it? Must cupidity be appealed to
to stimulate patriotism and duty-do-
ing? Not unless American sailors are
different from American soldiers Did
Skaters men fight any the less stoutly
that not a dollar Of all the wealth they
might capture would be theirs? Is the
naval service so much more dangerous
than the army that it must be given
additional inducements? Let the rec
ords of casualties in this or any war
answer that. When we get out Of the
habitual and look with fresh eyes at
this matter it does seem as If prize of
the navy should be relegated to the
oblivion into which booty of armies has
gone.
The report of the statistician of the
treasury for May contains lot of in
teresting information about the Ha-
waiian islands" Of unusual interest, now
that Uncle Sam has adopted them,
volcanoes. leprosy, natives, half-castes,
Japs and Chinese. The internal taxa
ton shows, in it's increase, that Ameri-
cans are liz control, having climbed up
1IOHH $foA,ooO, OT Qo.U5 d. uedu III 1909,
when the total population was 8O,57S,
to $706,541 in 1896. or S6.4S head, when
the population had risen to 10000. The
public debt shows the same unmistaka-
BILE sign. 1t was only $4,000 when our
missionaries got there. but by 1876 they
had civilized the natives into a debt of
$459,1S Their sons, however did bet
ter. By 1884 they had run it up to
the country into a debt of 81, 1O1, ia, the
payment of which Uncle Sam kindly
assumes. The revenues Of the islands
touched top notch in 1883, when they
were $4,S12575, with the expenditures
running nip-and-tuck with them at
S4,712.2S5. Since then there has been
| inc off