The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-01-28
Was Again the Topic Of Discussion
In the House.
Antl-Expanslonlsts Making an Intense
Struggle to Defeat the Measure.
The Opposition to the Bill so
Strong That Chairman Hull De-
cides to Abandon the Idea
of Providing Directly for a
Regular Army of One Hundred
Thousand Men.


Thousand Men.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27-The oppo-
sition to the army reorganization bill
on the Republican side of the House
has become SO strong that to-day Chair
man Hull, after Henderson Qowa), one
of the floor leaders of the majority, had
threatened to recommit the BILL decided
it would be wise, in order to secure it's
passage, to abandon the idea of pro-
viding directly for a regular army of
lO0,0 200 men. He announced on the floor
that the committee would offer amend
ments to reduce the number of enlisted
men to about 10000. but lodge in the
President the authority to increase the
army to maximum of 100000.
These amendments have been pre-
pared. They provide that the President,
in his discretion. enlist only sixty men
in the companies and sixty in the cav
airy troops. By the terms of the bill
there are to be thirty infantry regi-
ments Of ten companies each, with a
strength of 145 men, and twelve regi-
ments of cavalry of ten troops each,
with a strength of 1O6 men. This dis
erection, if the President would exercise
it, would reduce the number of enlist
ed men about 81 600, and practically
leaving intact the organization provid-
ed in the bill so far as officers are con-
cerned. How far this proposed modif
cation will allay the opposition remains
to be seen.
Johnson Of Indiana, who took prom
inent part in the fight to-day after the
general debate closed, declared that the
purpose of the bill was to have an
army of 100000, either by direct au
thority or the exercise of the Presi-
dents discretion. and he declared his
purpose to fight to the bitter end the
machinery which was being forged for
colonial system. Henderson, in the
course of the debate today, declared his
belief in the unwisdom of annexing the
Philippines. Johnson said the vital
mistake was made when the President
instructed the Peace Commissioners to
demand the cession of the Philippines.
The whole debate to-day was spirited,
and so intense was the struggle when
the bill was taken up for amendment
under the five minute rule that the first
section had not been completed when
the House recessed at o'clock.
When the House met to-day but lit
tie more than an hour remained of the
time for general debate on the army
reorganization bill.
Henderson (R.) of Iowa was the first
speaker to-day. He had, he said, been
slow to catch the war fever last spring.
He had foreseen some of the future
trouble as the outgrowth of the diff
culties which beset us at our immediate
doors, but he had not anticipated that
we would be carried to another hemi-
sphere, 1000 miles from our shores He
looked with aversion upon any PROPOSE
ton to increase the regular army, and
he hoped it would not be necessary to
establish a standing army of 100000.
He was, however. in view of the condi-
lions, willing to cheerfully support
proposition to increase the army to
$4,000 or $4,000 men. Beyond that he
hoped he would not be called upon to
go. But if Congress must go beyond
that, he trusted that no provision for
100000 men would be made, but that
discretion be lodged with the President.
The President could be trusted.
There was nothing in this ountry to
call for standing army of 100000
men. The people were peaceful, and
there was absolutely nothing in the
United States to draw the fire of guns
of any other country on the globe.
Henderson spoke of the demonstra-
tion of the "kickerss' which the country
and the House had witnessed The kick
ing had begun before the war was fair
~ under way Some kicked at the
President, some at the Secretary of
War, some at the staff, some at the
Adjutant General. There was kicking
at everything and anything. 1t was
easy to kick. It was the cheapest kind
of craftsmanship, and the applause
that greeted it was the cheapest sort
of applause.
It had been charged, he said. that
the commission appointed to investigate
the war was stacked" He eulogized
all the members of the commission,
Chairman Dodge by name, paying a
high tribute to his inorruptible and
fearless character.
Adverting to Johnson's speech on
Wednesday, he said that never in six
teen years experience had he heard a
speech so deserving of the condemna-
ton of patriotic hearts. What crime
had the President committed? The
President had done everything possible
to prevent the war. Was that a crime?
There was not enough powder in the
ountry to last our guns twenty-four
hours; there were neither arms, ambu
lances, surgical instruments or other
equipment. When the war came he
quickly set factories and arsenals in
motion. Then he forced the fighting in
two hemispheres, and in 113 days he
had whipped the enemy on land and
sea, and had wound up the war before
the people of the country had fully
a crime?
He had driven the enemy from Cuba;
he had seized Porto Rico and the rich.
est island of the Ladrones. Was that
crime? BY the guns of his country
nd hv tho r1auv t1ta h n fo,-,,,i q, rod tha