Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1901-11-14

moved east or west, north or south, up
or down, backward or forward
The way we are carrying on in the
Philippines is likely to lead some good
people to conclude that it sometimes
moves backward. For example, the
New York Evening Post, esteemed a
most conservative publication, says:
"Who would have believed it pos
sible, after reading the American de-
nunciations of Spain's concentration
policy in Cuba in 1897 and 1898, that
within three years American generals
would be applying it in the Philip
pines? Yet the unexpected has come
to pass. In Samar the strictest orders
have been given for the entire popula-
tion of the island to concentrate in
towns, accompanied by the threat that
any one found outside them will be
shot or hung as an enemy of the
American people. Any man who
should have dared in 1898 to prophesy
such a state of affairs would have
been denounced far and wide as a
slanderer Of the United States and
been Informed that the American flag
never had covered and never would
cover such infamy. Now, however, the
situation has changed and it is almost
impossible to get those newspapers
which were most outspoken in their
denunciations of Spanish misrule to
discuss the situation in the Philippines.
When they are forced to comment up
on it by such mishaps as the recent
disasters in Samar, it is only to assure
their readers, as did the New York
Times recently, that the situation in
Luzon is satisfactory"
Those be bitter words, my masters,
but they appear in the editorial col
umns of the New York Evening Post
one of the oldest and most conserva-
tive Republican papers in America
which once carried at it's masthead as
editor the masterful great name of
William Cullen Bryant
Nonsense.
There is a vast deal of arrant nom
sense being written just now about
the limitations on the president-that
is, as to what he may and may not do
in his proper person-and which in no
way influence the country or invade
the constitution. Such, for instance, as
that he must not dine out Why not?
He has as good a right to change of
grub as anybody else. Or he may not
walk about Washington. Why not?
General Grant did it frequently, and
the rule that a president may not be
permitted to do what any other re-
spectacle person may do Is too idiotic
for a sensible man to follow. And the
president may not go into the embassy
of foreign government. Why not?
Because by some fiction the houses
and grounds of foreign embassy are
foreign territory and therefore, al
though in Washington, ground forbid
den to our president. And so on to the
end of the ridiculous chapter. There
was once a rule or custom that the
president should take out the British
ambassadors wife to a state dinner at
the White House, but one Thomas
Jefferson took out Mrs. Dollie Madison.
And the British ambassador was furi-
GUS, and Tom Moore of blessed and
immortal memory, then In the callow
stage, wrote awful verses about JEFF
ferson, and they got up great tempest
in a teapot. Then it subSided, and the
idiotic rule was dead.
An IllustrIous Witness.
The advocates of the army canteen
have run up against a witness who
will generally be considered competent
to testify on that particular subject.
1t is no less a parsonage than Lieuten-
ant General Nelson A. Miles. Speak
ing In his report of the predictions
made concerning the repeal of the cam
teen in February, 1901, General Miles
says:
sThe army is compose principally
of young men who have not formed
the habit of using liquor, and, although
the majority of the enlistments actual
ly occur in large cities, as the recruit
ing offices are principally located there,
a large percentage of the men come
from homes in the country and small
towns and villages in every part of the
United States. The prediction that the
change would prevent enlistments and
increase desertions has not been full
filled. Since the law was approved
namely, on Feb. 2, 1901-the recruit
ing stations have been thronged with
men seeking enlistment for the serv-
ice, 25.944 having enlisted since that
date, and the percentage of desertions
is now far less than in former years.
Desertions most usually occur during
the first six months of enlistment, and
much larger percentage of enlist
ments have been made during the past
six months than heretofore. In many
cases the men that have deserted be-
long to a class whose presence in the
service was not desirable under any
conditions, but whose real character
was not known at the time of enlist
ment = =
"Under the regulations In force at
the Military academy at West Point,
occupied by the corps of cadets and a
regular garrison and under those that
have always prevailed at the Soldiers
home at Washington, where there are
now S53 men. ranging from twenty
two to over seventy years Of age, the
same condition of affairs has existed
for many years, with most gratifying
results, and there is no doubt that the
result of the present law in its effects
upon military garrisons will also be
hanaficia1,,