The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-03-06
NEWS HND COMMENT


The compromise army bill perpetuatcs
the awkward and obsolete statf system
which now exists i'm our military service
but has been discarded by every other
country in tho world. Senator Proctor
and others who are trying to introduce
business methods into the army promise
to take up the matter next session ana
reorganize the army on business prlnci-
pies. one of the greatest weaknesses in
our military service which prevails in no
other nation, and to which much of the
mismanagement and scandal during the
late war was due is the plan of promotion
| by seniority. 1t Is based upon the the
ory that all men are equally competent,
and that one can perform the duties of
particular position just as well as an
other In Great Britain, Germany and
France and other armies. when a vacancy
occurs at the head of a staff or a divis-
ion the best man that could be found is
appointed but we take the man whose
name is a the head Of the list, no matter
what his qualifications may be; the Of
ficer who has served the longest takes
command, and not the one who has served
the best BY following this method we
are always getting square pegs into round
| holes. The experience of the medical de-
| portment Is a good Illustration. DR..
Sternberg, surgeon general of the army,
| is an eminent scientist In his particular
| line he had a worldwide reputation, but
| he has no more executive ability than a
child, and his warmest admirer would
never trust him to transact a matter of
| business. Nevertheless. because he is the
| senior surgeon he Is placed in charge of
| the medical corps and has enormous
| business responsibilities which he is not
| qualified to assume. 1T Is 10 discredir to
| Dr. Sternberg that his talents do not run
IN pti ttIs.p ii rra &c
a great soldier but an utter failure in
| business and it is very likely that the
| foremost business man In this country
| would he an equal failure If he undertook
| the command of an army; and neither
| General Grant nor John Rockefeller nor
| Marshall Field could compare with Dr.
| Sternberg as a miCrosCopist. The whole
method of doing business in the army
| should be modernized and simplihed, and
| 1t was hoped that the experience of the
war would convince congress of its ne,
| cessity, but by the adoption of the COM
promise bill reorganization is postponed
for at least two years. w. f. Curtis in
Chicago Record.
Under date of Jan. IS Hon. o. f. Will
Jams, formerly United States consul at
Manila, writes. 81 note garbled and dis
| torted statement running through the pa
pers that / advocated buying or bribing
| the submission of the Filipinos. This is
| false What l did argue was that from
May to Aug. 10 they were our allies, aid
| ing greatly in the capture, restraints and
| defeat of a common enemy, and that for
| such aid they should be modestly paid;
| that such payment was just and would
| cement good feeling; that but for the be-
| leaguering of Manila by them the army
| u5O00) of Spain would not have surren-
| dered to us Aug. 13. but would have scat
| tered in the strongholds of the provinces
| and on other islands and that for their
| capture and subjugation long time, many
lives and vast treasure must have been
| expended. That had Aguinaldo not done
| this at a tr1ling expense in equipment
and commissary, contrasted with what
| 1t must have cost us, America would
mourn great loss of life. Again, while we
| criticise the government of Aguinaldo his
| has been the only restraining power in
these populous islands since May !, eX
cept in the narrow limits of Manila. and
| Cavite, and if United States were to take
over the Spanish East Indies today
ledger might show them to be worth a
hundred millions of gold more than they
would have been had not the dictatOrial
command of Aguinado withheld the torch
| of Filipinos, who were determined to burn
all Spanish and Roman Catholic property.
l had many conferences in May and June
with Aguinaldo and his leaders, and told
! lutIl lildl llle NllDlt "Ol III was lpphllit5 at
them to Judge their conduct and that if
incendiarieS and looters had liberty the
whole Filipino race would be condemned
as guilty. Aguinaldo pledged observance
Of my advice, and | am bound to give him
a fun measure of credit. I wrote Wash
ingtOn, not one cent for bribery, but hon
est gold for honest debt and l believe
our great nation will honor my position
l believe the application of the golden
rule will effect all by diplomacy, which
otherwise will cost thousands of lives and
millions more of gold"
Instead of any fight being thrown on
the subject, the mystery concerning the
sudden adjournment of the Quay conspir-
aCy trial seems to deepen. Rigid investi-
cation has determined, almost to GER
| tainty, that the ugly rumOrS of jury tiN-
ing and impersonation which gained cred
ence the day of the postponement are
without foundation in fact This being
the case, the action of District Attorney
Rothermel in asking for a continuance OF
the trial until April TO- and Judge Belt
ler's assent thereto, are more ineXplic-
able than ever. OF the entire panel of
nearly fifty jurors, only one has given
intimatiOn that he was in any manner
approached. This man is Thomas Jar
Wis, who stated that two politicians casu-
| ally asked him questions concerning the
pressed for further explanation, he ad-
mitted that no open or even covert at
tempt was made to influence him. All the
other men on the panel declare that they
We're not approached in any way 1t de-
vclops that 1t would have been practical
ly impossible for any attempt to have been
made to tamper with the prospective
jurymen. AS soon as the panel was an
nounCed, the men upon it were kept un-
der close watch, not only by the city de-
teCtives and Pinkertons employed by the
! commonwealth, but also by a large force
; of private detectives employed by Sena-
tor Quay's attorneys. The defense, it is
stated, feared that attempts would be
made to tamper with the jury by Quay :
{ enemies and for that reason a force OF
, over thirty private detectives was en-
, gagged by the defense 10 shadow the men
drawn on the panel day and night.
Thomas A. Edison, jr, claims TO have
discovered a process for hardening steel
which, while ii costs less than half that
Of the Harvey process, gives much SUI
, poriOr results. a 6-inch plate treated by
his process Mr.. Edison declares is equal
or, If anything, superior i'm power Of re-
2 sistance to a lj-inCh HarveyiZed plate. II