The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-07-31
VOICE OF THE PRESS.
State and Coast Opinions on SUBJ
jects Of Living News
Interest.

| eminent shall at once send to the Phil
lpplnes a military force strong enough
to overwhelm the insurgents is rather
amusing, when it is remembered that
the Government has very few addi-
t1onal soldiers whom it could send and
that TO raise raw levies and drill them
would be an affair of months. The
volunteers raised last spring required
weeks and, even months of preparation,
ana they We're nearly all militiamen.
While at this time the Government
would not be able to get whole regi-
ments OF militia to enlist Consequently
1t Will take more time to prepare the
troops than it did last year.
MUNICIPAL CONSCIENCE.
Fresno Republican: The Sacramento
Record Union challenges the Re
publican to mention any instance of
the revival of municipal conscience,
which we recently referred to as one
of the most encouraging signs of the
times. The charter movement is one.
Cities have awakened to the fact that
| they are suffering from misgovern-
ment, and are undertaking to remedy
| the evil by changing their fundamental
laws. 1t will take much more than
| this, but the general application of the
remedy, however imperfect, at least
shows general realization that some
| remedy is needed. The general &C.
| ceptance-in wOrds-of the theory that
politics should be kept out of munich
| pal appointments shows an awakening
| civic conscience, thuogh it has not
yet led to much improvement in civic
| action. The large number of men of
| the highest class-social scientists, So
| cial enthusiasts in the various reform
movements and practicable men of af-
fairs-who are devoting themselves to
municipal reform, shows that the
movement is growing. The growth of
the public school system gives an in
creased Importance to things that men
do together, as political body instead
of separately, as individual units. Both
on the moral and intellectual sides, the
| development of municipal conscience
and consciousness goes on apace, and
| promises a natural solution to the
problems which none of the patent pro-
cesses have even touched.
SILLY CAMPAIGNING.
Stockton Independent: It is difficult
| to decide which was the sillier, the
Examiners" telegram to the Presi-
dent and effort to boom itself out of
the natural sympathy awakened for the
| Oregon volunteers, or the Mails edi-
| torial comments on the affair. Or
| course the Examiners grand stand
play had an element Of humanity in
/ it, and to that extent would commend
| itself to public tolerance, even if il
did exhibit the ignorance of the man
ayers of that journal The Mails
| comment was devoid of any element
worthy of American approval. The
idea which it attempts to convey is
that there must be something remiss
in President McKinley's gratitude to
the volunteers because he failed to is
| sue overcoats to them at Government
expense and contrary to. law. 1t is
not so much ignorance on the part of
the "Mail'' as political. cussedness. 1t
| shows in it's own article that it is
aware that the volunteers already have
a credit allowance for clothing. and the
reason they do not draw the clothing is
| because they prefer to draw the cash
at the time of their discharge. And
yet such partisan papers would make
] their readers believe that the Govern
ment, after providing clothing for the
men, is in duty bound to buy the cloth
| ing from the men and then give them
more clothing without warrant of law.
! Should the soldier prefer to sell his
rations and go hungry the same papers
would try to make the public believe
the Government should give them more
| rations without authority of law. This
| is a plan on which is being built the
| ground work of the Democratic cam
| paign. To be sure, it is contemplate
! from every standpoint, but there are
swarms of Democrats who are will
ing to be guided into another defeat by
such shallow leaders.
| CRITICISM OF CAMPAIGNS.
| Los Angeles Times: 1t is quite as
easy for newspaper men at the front to
| criticise and find fault with the pro-
| ceedings there as it is for their SUI
periorS who hold down editorial chairs
and conduct great military campaigns
from comfortable sanctums and in the
| breeze blown from electric fans.
| 1t is a lamentable fact that no Cen
eral ever conducted campaign any
where without the critic and the fault
| finder making himself heard in a
raucous tone of voice. When Ulysses
! S. Grant was pounding the heart out
/ of the enemy in the Wilderness in
| front of Richmond he was called a
bloody butcher" by these same kick
ers and fault-finders; they declared
| that Abraham Lincoln was a fool and
an ape when he was carrying the
weight of the civil war upon his great
shoulders and the sorrows of the peo-
,llA ~, l.; o,-t- hoy % al
| the beginning of Grants career that
he was a drunkard; they asserted over
and over again in the dark and bloody
days of the COS, that General William
Tecumseh Sherman was crazy; they
upbraided gallant Phil Sheridan for
his raids in the Shenandoah Valley;
| they found fault with Hallock, and
Hooker, and Burnside, and Meade, and
! Rosencrans, and Stoneman, and Gar
! field, and Pap Thomas, and Steele,
and all the other great commanders
who fought the battles of the Union
and saved the United States from eter-
| nal disaster in that mighty war be-
tween the States; they carped at Miles
and Crook when the ApacheS were be-
ing run to earth across the burning des-
erts and through the rocky canons of
Arizona; they sat in judgment upon
| Shafter, who accomplished such a Won
derful feat in compelling the capitula-
ton of the Spanish forces at Santiago,
| and, therefore, it is not to be expected
that Major General Otis. who is work.
| ing perhaps harder than any man in
| America, should escape fire from the
throwers of brickbats and paper wads
| 1t is perfectly safe to say that what