Arizona republican., 1899-02-06
A BEARER OF FALSE WITNESS.

Jerry simpson told the house tnf other day that the volunteers Of 1881
 '65 fought with a heroism never ex-
 celled in the worlds history" He has
 the facts on his side there.
 He told the house further concern l ing that great struggle Gin which he took part for Q while until disabled by disease) that it was "a war not be- tween regular troops, but between men from the farms, the workshops, from the counting houses, and from all of the other avocations Of life, who came to defend wAat they believed to be right" That's historically true. too and untrue. The huge mass of v0lun- itcers enveloped and hid from popular sight the few regiments of regulars as the lump swallows up the leaven. But the leaven is there-and the regulars were there Not only did they give a splendid account Of themselves but their example was an education to the men from the farms, the workshops, ,, etc., who camped, marched and fought in their company. The armed mohs cf the first year Of the war became armies of seasoned so1diers-regulars in all but the nama-loEg before the war was over. And d large majority of the great commanders, on both sides, were educated, professional soldiers, graduates of West Point, officers or eX- officers of the regular army. To say that the war of 1861-'65 was q war be- tween raw volunteers and to stop thers-is inexact and misleading.
 Put Jerry Simpsons offense in the house the other day was great deal more serious than any inaccuracy. He permitted himself to say:
 A man in this country, where so many avenues of opportunity are open to him, who enlist in the standing army, is generally a person who can rot get anything to do in any other say or in any other walk of life. He gees into it as an occupation because he is excluded from other avenues of life. He is a hired fighter, CA Hes sian" interpolated one of Jerry's pa triotic fellow congressmen.) He has no other occupation IS rule and goes into the army simply as a job, in or der to secure the pay that service will give him.
 Everybody knows that Jerrys tongue is hung very loosely, but it doesn't often wag to so villainous a tune as this His assertions are either ignorant caIumnie5 or deliberate malicious calumnies. Whatever may have been the case years ago, the reg Ular army of these times is one of the finest bodies of manly young men and middle-aged men in this or any other country. It is not and does not adver- tise to be Q museum of saints, it las it's occasional black sheep, but it will compare very well in morals (as in some other respects) with the house Of representatives, CT even with the Kansas farmers. Tcughs and buns and fools and cranks are not wanted in it, and are sternly sent to the right about when they E-esent themselves at the recruiting offices. Applicants are tested not only as to their physical but their mental and moral conditions, and (as Mir Marsh told the calumnious Simpson, in the last ten years over S5 per cent of the would-be recruits have been rejected. That one fact tells 2 story very different from the story told by the Kansas populist and slanderer.
 Most of us have not had time yet to forget the record made by these same regulars in the Santiago campaign. Many had the chance to talk with tke brave, modest, uncompIaining young fellows in the hospitals, when they came back. Not herces-only regu- lars" Now they are lied about and called +Hessians'' in the capitol at Washington. It doesn't seem possible that such vile insratitude can please Americans anywhere-even in the back-ccuntry districts of Kansas. But we don't know. Demagogues, jaccbins and scatteT-brained blatherskites have been working their jaws against the army for a good many years now, which indicates a belief on their part that it's good politics