The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-09-07
Increase of the Army.

Just at present we have in the regular army
as compared with our population, ninetenths
of a soldier to every one thousand OF population.
This is the proposition for the year 1900 Well,
in the year 1900 we had eight'tenths Of SOL
dier to every one thousand inhabitants. The in.
crease of militarism since the palmy days of
Jefferson, century back, is represented by tx.
actly one-tenth of a soldier to every thousand
inhabitants and the increase to the danger Of
our institutions is measured, therefore, by the
amount OF tyranny which Is capable of being
exercised by American in Il uniform over
ten thousand of his teow.ctizenS without uni
forms. There was an anti.imperiastic meeting
at indianapolis recently which endorsed Mr..
Bryan and the delegates expressed frantic alarm
at the increase in our military force. The figures
| have given show that mathcmatically these
three hundred so.called "anti-imperialists" we're
only entitled collectively 10 so much terror
among them alias would be represented by
little less than one-thirtieth of regular soldier;
| freely admit their capacity for being fright
ened but this amount Of menace scarcely sctms
to entite even the most sensitive soul to any
oVer-STought sympathy
Since 1907 the proportion OF the regular army
has varied somewhat even in times of peace II
has sometimes been lower than it is at present
and again il has been higher, as in 1910 when
we had one and iour.tenths soldiers for every
thousand people and in 1870 when we had one for
every thousand people, During the Indian wars
on the plains we often had relatively larger
military force than has been employed in the
! Philippines and there was just mu,h Chonce
| OF "miitarism" then as there is now, Gnd no
more
| Let any one Of you think Of his own expert.
enCe You know that il makes not one particle
of difference to you regards your private life
whether we have ten or twenty regiments Of
heavy artillery in our coast force; or whether
we have ten or twenty regiments OF cavalry and
| infantry engaged in keeping order vbDhcr
among the Indians on the plains OF smong the
| Tsgals in the Philippines. Thee rs no more
| possibility of a draft or Of any s'rious bVCen
OF military service in this country tan there is
a possibility of George HIS coming 20 life sgain;
| and the man who proposes to feel frightened
about the one might as we'll express TervCI sLess
as to the possibility of the other
So il is with imperialism. There ia not the
| least little danger OF imperialism and there is
not a dividing line Of any kind to be drawn be-
! tween our methods Of expansion in 1905 and 1899
and the methods Of expansion under which
we acquired Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Louis.
lana, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, California,
Hawaii and Alaska. Mr.. Bryan has recently
spoken Of US as having purchased the Philip
| pines at 80. 80 a head, treating it as analogous
to buying slaves at 81 900 head, II seems i'm
possible that such a statement could be made
| unless as a lest. Mr. Bryan must know that the
| Philippines were paid for precisely as Florida
Louisiana, California and Alaska were paid for.
, The Filpinos were no more purchased than were
| the individual dwelers in New Orleans, St.
| Augustine, Santa Fe and Sitka. II the Filpnos
were purchased at so much a head by President
Mckinley, then the inhabitants of Louisiana
lwere SO purchased by Jefferson, and the Chris