Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-11-28
WHAT THEY ARE
TALKING ABOUT.


Secretary Longs navy estimaes.'
says the New York Evening Post,
should make plain to every one what
an enormous price the country IS to pay
in it's race to outstrip European nations
the new estimates are thirty-one mil
| lions higher than those for last year
only demonstrates once more how the
naval appetite always grows with feed
ing upon the public treasury. The time
for the American people to gay enough
has come. That We ave sufficient ships
for national defense is the testimony OF
high naval officers. To enter upon prep
a~rations for offensive warfare is to In
vite war and to go counter to h spirit
OF the American people and its institu-
tions. 1t is noteworthy that, despite the
enormous increase in appropriations
asked, Secretary Long is planning for
not more than three battleships and two
armored cruisers, as against the two
battlestlips and two cruisers authorized
last year. In striking and pleasing con-
trast to these navy estimates are those
Of the war department"
We have quoted this editorial first be-
cause 1t is the only one of its kind we
have seen. The New York Journal
(dem.) declares that no insurance
against the calamity Of war can be too
costly. And a great navy is a perfect
Insurance.. II 1t is great enough. 1t has
insured England so well that no alie1
enemy has set foot on her soil since
Scotland ceased to be foreign two hun
dred years ago. Give us a mighty navy,
and come war or peace we shall be Sc
cure. Our farmers can SOW and reap,
our mills can turn; our women and
children can rest in security. The roa
OF guns will be far out of our hearing.
In trying to accomplish these all im-
portant objects President Roosevelt is
engaged in no partisan enterprise. and
his plans should be received in no par
ttsan spirit. 1t Is not a republican but
On American program that he pro-
poses. Let the democrats In congress
prove that they can meet a republican,
president on American ground" The
comment Of the Baltimore Sun and
Boston Post (dem.) are along the same
lines. THE people will not grudge the
money for the navy, say the latter.
They have come to look upon the nav
most properly, as the great bulwark Of
the republic against possible foreign ag-
erosion and the guarantee Of security
to our land. A great navy is different
from a. great standing army. 1t carries
no menace of militarism. 1t is a means
Of protection not of aggression, ranking
among the necessities of national exist
ence along with sufficient coast fortii-
cations. For this we can afford to spend
money"
Discussing President Roosevelt's pol
icy in making appointments to public
office, the editor Of the Revirw of Re-
views (Noveniber) observes that the
precedent set in the case of the United
States district a~ttorneyship for Kan
sas. Senator Burton's applicant for
which was rejected, is notice to
tors n their constituents that "it
would be useless for them to appear be-
fore the president as champions of an
didates for postmasters. or other fed
eral appointments in their states, un-
less such candidates could pass muster
as being we'll qualified on all grounds.
1T would not be just to Mr.. Roose-
velt's predecessors in office to assume
that they also did not recognize in the
main the duty OF making appointments
on the basis of fitness" the Review
continues. But it happens that no
other president, at least in recent times.
has come into the Office so entirely free
as Mr.. Roosevelt from obligations and
relationships that might at times lead
to a compromise of the principle. Fur
thermore Mr.. Roosevelt brought with
him into the presidents Office the repu-
tation of being the foremost practical
civil-service reformer in the country,
and the politicians will not expect him
to do anything to tarnish that reputa-
ton. 1t is happened that there was a
vacancy to be filled in the board Of civil
service commissioners at Washington,
and Mr.. Roosevelt showed his attitude
toward the laborious place hat he
himself held for six years under Presi-
dents Harrison and Cleveland by choos-
ing an eminent civil service reformer,
the Hon. William Dudley Foulke, of In
diana, to fill the vacancy. Mr.. Foulke
is a republican and a very brilliant cam
palSn speaker, Dut ne mas long been
one of the leaders in the movement for
the placing of the civil service on a
strict business basis, and is a member
of the council of the National civil
service reform league. He is the ideal
man for the place"
THE presidents frankly avowed poll
ICY" says the Worlds Work, which was
his policy as governor of New York and
is the only policy that a man Of such an
earnest. straightforward nature could
adopt, is to appoint republicans when
republicans are recommended Who are
fit, but to appoint ft men always,
whether they be republicans or demo-
Gratis. And he will take counsel about
appointments with senator's and repre-
sentatives, giving them to understand
that they must recommend only fit men.
The president may encounter the criti-
cism of local political managers; but, II
he resolutely follow this course (and he
Is resolute or %nothing), he will never en-
counter the criticism Of the larger pub
lie for his appointments"