Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1900-10-25

such standing army as above indi-
Gated that alone is sufficient to demon
strate that it is the greatest curse that
ever befell free people. But, in my
judgment, this vast military establish
ment is not desired or intended for
service abroad, but to be located in the
large cities, to carry the election for
congressman and for the legislatures
that elect congressman of the United
States. Surely the American voters
are not ready to substitute a govern
ment by the bayonet fer u government
by the ballot The most amazing
thing about this proposition is that
any foreign born citizen Of the United
States can be induced to vote for the
party that advocates it, for it is safe to
state that so per cent Of all the for
eign born male citizens of the United
States now here who were adults wiseD
they came to America came here 10
escape military service themselves and
to save their boys from being con-
scripted into the standing armies of
Europe. 1t surely cannot be that they
will help establish here the bad sys-
tenn from which they fled when they
left Europe
Philippine Matters.
Notwithstanding the vast amount of
writing and talking that has been done
about the Philippine question there
are certain features of it to which suf-
fcient attention has not been given.
Among other evil effects of the Phil
ippine business is the building up Of q
huge pension roll which my grandchil-
dren viii not live long enough to see
paid off, and my Oldest child is only 10
years of age. If any old Union soldiers
read this, wish to call their special
attention to this fact and to put into
their ears flea of large proportions,
for they have a direct interest In the
matter
When God created the world, he
could have made it exactly the same
climate from pole to pole as easily as
the way he did make it, but for some
wise purpose he made the arctic zones
so cold that nobody can live there; he
made the temperate zones and white
people to live in them; he made the
torrid zone a-straddle Of the equator,
where there is eternal summer, and
he made negroes, Malays and 9th
er scolored persons to live in it. We
can't live there; it is contrary to ma
ture. If we had discovered the Philip
pine Islands and there hadn't been a
native on them and we hadn't been
compelled to fight to get possession of
them, we could not populate them with
people of our own race. For SEQ years
the HolIanders have had possession of
the island of Java, with a climate al
most exactly the same as that of the
Philippines Six different times have
they tried to colonize it with white
persons. and six times have they sig
nally and completely failed. People
of our breed can't live in the Philip
pines. To try it is to fight against fate.
Those who do not die there viii be
fit subjects for pensions as long IS
they live; that fact should cause the
veterans of the civil war 70 keep their
optics pealed, for there Is just so much
laoney and no more that9ean be deyet-
ed to pensions. a great many Union
soldiers are still without pensions and
want them; many who have pensions
desire them increased. If large pen
sion roll is built up by reason of this
endless Philippine war, the old Union
soldiers will be cut short on their pen
sions just as certainly as water runs
down hill for it is mathematical
truth that whom a pie is cut into six
pieces the pieces are not as large as
when it Is cut into four.
Hard work to Get Pensions.
/ am fully aware that the statement
that my grandchildren will not live to
see these pensions paid off seems pre-
pesterous. Eight years ago l would
not have made it. but in that length of
time | have learned something. When
l first went to Washington as a CON
gressional grecnhorn and tenderfoot,
they did with nee what they did with
all tenderfeet and greenhorns-that is,
showed me off to poor and obscure
committees where there was great
deal Of hard work and scant glory.
Now I rank second among the Demo
Gratis on the great foreign affairs com
mlttee. which Senator Henry Clay
Heather facetiously denominates the
swagger committee of the house, but it
took me eight years to get up there.
A congressman mas TO begin at the foot
of the class and spell up Therein lies
| the wisdom of retaining 4 faithful and
capable representative in congress. IN
my first service in congress was as
signed to the old pensions committee.
which had jurisdiction over all pen
sions back of the civil war; that com
mittee had jurisdiction over pensions
growing out of the Revolutionary war,
the war of 1912. the Mexican war aud
the Indian wars.
I never had studied much about the
matter. but | supposed all the Revolu-
tionary soldiers and their widows had
died aud gone to glory long ago That
| proved to be Il great mistake, for in
1898, 1891 and 1895 that committee put
in a large part Of its time considering
pension piIIs for widows of the Kevo-
lutionary war, which closed in 1TS5.
| Only two or three weeks ago I saw in
the newspapers where one of those
widows whom / helped to pension in
1898 had just died. That state of af-
fairs was a great mystery te me at
first, and determined to fathom it
how those widows had come down to
us from the past century land ! sue
ceeded in the investigation. The way
it comes about is this: A soldier Of the
Philippine war now Is years old, lives
to be 90 and becomes a widoweE He
marries him wife 10 years cid, and
she lives to be so. She will be draw
ing a pension 147 years from now! And
she viii be drawing pension after we
and our children and our grandchildren
are gathered to our fathers! OF course
this is an extreme case, but that a