Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1899-09-22
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS
FACTS AND OPINIONS GATHERED
FROM CONTEMPORARIES.
WHITTIER WE ARE DRIFTING.

WHIT HER WE ARE DRIFT TING.
For the first two months of the new
fiscal year our government has expended
SlO2, 800, 090.33, of which S2l, 066, 4S9 81
has gone for the support of the civil and
miscellaneous establishment, and all the
rest for military expense of one kind or
another. The army got S34.262 ,0S0 06 ;
the navy, S9,6SS ,2l5.40; military pen
sions, S26, 055, 674.SO, and interest on the
war debt, 50, 1853, S45 So, a total on the
military side of the ledger OF S79,159.-
Si5.G4, or at the rate of S474, 959, 073 81 a
year for warlike outgoes, while the
total cost of the civil establishment was
at the annual rate of $126 39S, 93S Sc.
AT the present time not quite so per
cent of the expenses of carrying on this
peaceful country are on account of wars,
past, present and anticipated, but the
ratio is nearer to so per cent than to any
other round figure. Is there any other
country, free or despotic, which spends
a larger proportion of its income on
war? do not know, because | have
not had the opportunity to look up the
statistics, but | should be surprised, in
deed, to find that any country of high
civilization, or pretending of high
civilization, spends four times as much
on war and warlike preparation as on all
its civil expenses put together. 1t is
difficult to comprehend that, with hardly
realization of it by the people, we are
becoming the most warlike of nations,
so far, at least, as outlay on military
matters goes.
Moreover, the taxes are largely taking
on new form. They are coming home
to mems business and bosoms more
closely than heretofore. The indirect
taxes of the tariff, which have from the
beginning of the republic been the
mainstay of the federal government are
so no longer. For the first two months
of the new fiscal year the receipts from
the tariff were S37,5lS, isl. 53, while the
receipts from the indirect taxes of the
internal revenue were S52, 559, 613.96.-
Washington Letter to Buffalo Express.
SECRETARY HAYS CAMPAIGN LETTEs.
John Hay, secretary of state, is not
able to take part in the Ohio campaign
this fall, but he sends letter to the
chairman of the republican committee
as his contribution to the canvass. This
we print this morning. 1t is the work
of practlced hand and shows the skill
which Mr.. Hay exhibited when leader
writer for the New York Tribune. If
this communication from the secretary
of state offers evidence that the campaign
in Ohio stands in need of his assistance,
. it is not necessary to comment on that.
The intent of the letter obviously is to
do away with the prejudicial effect of the
gushing and too general talk of an all-
ance with England for an Anglo-Saxon
domination of the world. That was a
two edged sword which the friends of
the administration propose to sheathe.
| if possible, and that early. 1t was a
product of the height of the imperialistic
frenzy, and is now seen to have been ex-
tremely bad politics. No one has sup
posed that any secret alliance with Eng
land has been consummated; but we all
know that Cur British cousins have been
intent, In season and out of season, In
Logging on the people of the United
States to an imitation of England's i'm
perial policies. Every intelligent student
of affairs sees that In our purpose to
subugate the Filipinos we are pleasing
the nation which already staggers I'M
der "the white mans BURDEN" and that
in denying to another people the right of
self-government we outrage our own
history, and violate those fundamental
republican principles which have been
our boast and pride.
The vital issue Colonel Hay does not