Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-09-07
MEETS THE BRYAN ISSUE
GOV. R0OsEvELT DISCUSSES MILL
TARIsM At DETROIT MEETING.
Four Thousand People Listen to and
Applaud His Utterances-Object
Lesson Presented.

| A dispatch from Detroit last night says:
| The first meeting Of Governor Roosevelts
| western tour, which was held in the big
/ assembly room of the Light Guard armory
| tonight, was all that the governors most
| ardent partisans could have desired in point
| Of attendance and enthusiasm. The floor
| and galleries of the great hall were crowded.
| Many were on the outside unable to obtain
/ seats or standing room within hearing dis
| lance. The vice presidential candidate re-
| ceived tremendously enthusiastic greet
| ing as he made his way UP through one OF
| the side aisles. A large proportion OF the
audience stood upon chairs and yelled fran
| tically for Teddy. 1t was with difficulty
| that the shouters could be appeased and 81
| lence restored so as to permit the program
to proceed. Homer Warren, chairman OF
| the republican city committee, called the
to and az
another Of the leaders in the Santiago cam
paign. presided.
When the governor arose to speak the
| great crowd arose almost en- masse and re-
| manned standing and shouting for some
| time.
The governors speech occupied about an
| hour In delivery and was listened to
| throughout with thoughtful attention. and
| the telling sarcastic and witty points were
| quickly caught and applauded.
Good Object Lesson.
Governor Roosevelt gave the audience an
object lesson when he asserted that our
soldiers In the Philippines had less to fear
| from any body of armed bandits In that
| country than they had to fear from the
principles of the Kansas City platform and
| the success of the democratic ticket. He
| said five members of the regular army were
present. and he asked them to stand up,
| that the audience might see their tyrants
| Five soldiers from the 18th Infantry, at
Fort Wayne, who occupied front seat,
| when thus invited arose and were applaud
| ed until their cheeks glowed with bushes.
| Now" exclaimed Governor Roosevelt. be
| hold your tyrants." The audience shouted
with laughter There are here" contin-
| ued the governor, five soldiers to four
| thousand people in this audience. which is
a larger percentage of tyranny in this house
| bears to the whole number of the people of
| this country
Attacks Bryan's Record.
| Governor Roosevelt went over Mr.. Bryan's
| speeches In the campaign of 1896 and in
the present year and thoroughly dssected
| them, and continued:
II have shown you how little Mr.. Bryan's
| utterances in the past have squared with
| the facts. whether he was dealing with
! finance whether he dealing with
patriotism. and it Is as exactly as true to-
| day. when he and the makers of the Kansas
City pla form talk of imperialism or MILL
| tarsm One reason that makes 1t difficult
| to seriously argue either question is that,
| so far as | know, there Is no man In the
United States who believes In either inn
| perialism or mlitarism. They are pure
phantoms of as even more shadowy and in
| tangible quality than the Ubiquitous rob-
| Der gold dollar which disturbed Mr.. Bryan
| so much four years ago. The regular army
| Is not nearly as numerous, relatively to the
| whole population. as is the New York police
| force relatively to the population of New
| York, and 1T is literally as absurd to predi-
| cate militarism Imperialism on the size
of the army 1t would be to see In the
number of policemen a menace to personal
liberty. There is no more chance of draft
| to fill one body than to fill the other. and
| there is even less chance in the case of the
| army that it will be used against our free
dom.
4 Soldiers and Population.
Just at present we have in the regular
army as compared with our population,
| nine-tenths of soldier to every 1000 Of
populat ton. This Is the proportion for the
| year 1900. Well. in, the year 1900 we had
| eight-tenths of soldier to every 1000 in
habitants. The increase of miltarism since
| the days of Jefferson is represented by ex-
actly one-tenth of a soldier to every 600
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 one American in
uniform over 10000 of his feliow-citizens
| without uniforms. There was an anti-im-
| perialistic meeting at Indianapolis recently
which Endorsed Mr. Bryan and the dele
| gates expressed frantic alarm at the in
crease in our military force The figures I
have given show that mathematically these
| 300 so-called anti-imperalists were only
| entitled collectively to so much terror
| among them alias would be represented
by little less than one-thirtieth of a regu-
| lar soldier. l freely admit their capacity
| for being frightened. but this amount Of
| menace scarcely seems to entite even the
| most sensitive soul to any overwrought
| sympathy.
Variation In Regular Army.
Since 1900 the proportion Of the regular
army has varied somewhat, even in times
| of peace 1t has sometimes been lower than
| i. IS at present, and. again, 1t has been
higher, in 1910, when we had one and
| four-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 a relative
| ly larger military force than has been en-
| ployed in the Philippines, and there was
| just as much chance of militarism' then as
| there is now. and no more.
"There Is not the least little danger of
| Imperialism, and there Is not dividing line
| of any kind to be drawn between our meth
DDS of expansion In 1893 and 1899 and the
methods of expansion under which We ac-
| quired Michigan, Illinois. Florida, Louisi-
| ana, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, Califor-
| nia Hawaii and Alaska. Mr.. Bryan has
recently spoken Of as having purchased
| the Philippines at $3.50 a head, treating it
| as analogous to buying slaves at $1,000 a
head. 1t seems impossible that such y
! statement could be made unless as q jest
Mr.. Bryan must know that the Philippines
were paid for precisely as Florida, Louisi-
ana, California and Alaska were paid for.
| The Philippines were no more purchased
| than were the individual jewellers In New
Orleans. ST. Augustine, Stanta Fe and Sit
| ka. If the Filipinos were purchased at 50
| much head by President Mckinley, then
| the inhabitants of Louisiana were SO pur-
chased by Jefferson. and the Chrlstianixed
| half-castes of Alaska were so purchased
| by Seward.
Consent of the Governed.
"Mr. Bryan and his associates cannot say
| enough about the consent Of the governed
doctrine applying to the Philippines
They dwell upon the fact that no man Is
| good enough to govern another In North
Carolina and other southern states we see
before our eyes the process Of the disen-
Reimbursement of the negro. We see before
our eyes the black man governed without
his consent by the white man. Be 1t re-
| membered too, that the men thus disfran-
chised have always been MIR. Bryan's fell
| low citizens, most of them born as free as
1 he was horn. IL our ODnopanfx ara Sincoro