The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1902-12-04

d
and efficient system should be adopted.
Provision should be made to enable the
secretary OF war to keep cavalry and ar
ance of duty. Such horses so fetch Ref but a
tribe when sold, and rather than turn
them out to the misery awaiting them
when thus disposed of it would be better
to employ them at light work around the
posts and when necessary to put them
painlesSly to death.
For the first time in our history naval
under the immediate command of the ad-
miral of the navy. Constantly increasing
attention is being paid to the gunnery Of
should BE- / earnestly urge that the he in. !.
crease asked for by the secretary Of the
navy In the appropriation for improving
the Workmanship be granted. In battle
me only shots that count are the shots
that hit. 1t Is necessary to provide ample
funds for practice with the great guns in
time OF peace. These funds must provide
but for allowances for prizes to encour-
age the gun crews, and especially the gun
pointers, and for perfecting an intelligent
system under which alone it is possible to
get good practice.
There should be no halt in the work of
Duldlng up the navy, providing every
year additional fighting craft. We are
tory and great in population, country,
moreover. which has an army diminutive
indeed when compared with that of any
ately made our own certain foreign poll
cies which demand the possession Of a
first class navy. The isthmian canal will
greatly increase the efficiency of our navy
have an Inadequate navy then the build
Ing of the canal would be merely giving
hostage to any power Of superior strength.
The Monroe doctrine should be treated as
the cardinal feature of American foreign
policy. but it would be worse than idle
to assert 1t unless we intended to back it
Nm Ind ha h&
thoroughly good navy. A good navy is
not provocative of war. 1t Is the surest
guaranty Of peace
Each individual unit Of our navy should
both material and personnel that is to be
found in the world. I call your special
attention to the need Of providing for the
threatens us If we cannot do better than
we are now doing as regards securing the
services of sufficient number of the high
The veteran seamen Of our warships are
of as high type as can be found in any
navy which rides the waters Of the world.
a fSn are IN daring in res9-
edge of their profession. They deserve ev-
cry consideration that can be shown them.
But there are not enough of them. 1t is
no more possible to improvise crew than
1t Is possible to improvise a warship. To
build the finest ship, with the deadliest
battery, and to send it aflQst with raw
dividually, would be to insure disaster If a
foe Of average capacity were encountered.
Neither ships nor men can be improvised
when war has begun.
We need a thousand additional officers
In order to properly man the ships now
provided for and under construction. The
classes at the naval school at Annapolis
should be greatly enlarged. At the same
time that we thus add the officers where
we need them, we should facilitate the re-
tirement ct those at the head of the list
whose usefulness has become impaired.
Promotion must be fostered If the Service
is to be kept efficient
The lanentable scarcity Of officers and
the large number of recruits and Of un-
skilled men necessarily put aboard the
new vessels as they have been commits
stoned has thrown upon our officers, and
especially on the lieutenants and junior
grades, unusual labor and fatigue and has
gravely strained their powers of endur-
ance. Nor is there sign of any immediate
letUp in this strain. Vt must continue for
some time longer until more officers IA.
graduated from Annapolis and until the
recruits become trained and skillful in
their duties. In these difficulties incident
upon the DEVELOPMENT of our war feet the
table to the service, and the lieutenantS
and junior grades in particular have dis
played an ability and a steadfast cheer
fulness which entitle them to the ungrudging
thanks of all who realize the dishearening trials
and fatigues to which they are of necessity sub
iected.
There seems not the slightest chance of trouble
with foreign power. We most earnestly hope
that this state of things may continue, and the
way to insure its continuance is to provide for
efficient navy. The refusal to main
tain such navy would invite trouble, and if
trouble came would insure disaster. Fatuous self
or vanity or shortsightedness in re-
fusi!g to prepare for danger is both foolish and
wicked in such O. nation as ours and past expert
ence has shown that such faulty in refusing to
recognize or prepare for any crisis in advance is
fU lodi NV mad nj hyStn
fear once the crisis has actually arrived.
The striking increase in the revenues of the
postnffce department shows clearly the prosperity
Of our people and the increasing activity of the
business of the country.
The receipts of the postofhce department for
the fiscal year ending June 80 last amounted to
the preceding year, the largest increase known in
the history of the postal service. The magnitude
Of this increase will best appear from the fact
that the entire postal receipts for the year 1860
Rural free delivery service is no longer in the
experimental stage. 1t has become fixed policy.
The results following its introduction have fully
justified the congress in the large appropriations
made for its establishment and extension, The
average yearly increase in postofice receipts in
the rural districts of the country is about per
cent. We are now able by, actual results, to
show that where rural free delivery service has
been established to such an extent as to enable
US to make comparisons the yearly increase has
been upward of 10 per cent.
l., ~
routes had been established and were in operation,
covering about one-third of the territory of the
United States available for rural free delivery
service. There are now awaiting the action of
the department petitions and applications for the
of 10, 74S additional routes This
shows conclusively the want which the establish
ment of the service has met and the need of fur
ther extending it as rapidly as possible. 1t Is
justified both by the financial results and by the
practical benefits to rural population; it
brings the men who live on the soil into close
1rooy,S
the farmer in daily touch with the markets; it is
a potential educational force; it enhances the
value OF farm property, makes farm life far
pleasanter and less isolated, and will do much to
check the undesirable current from country to
city.
1t is to be hoped that the congress will make
liberal appropriations for the continuance OF the
service already established and for its further ex-
tension.
Few subjects of more Importance have been
taken up by the congress in recent years than
irrigation for the arid regions of the far west.
A good beginning therein has been made. Now
that this policy of national irrigation has been
adopted the need of thorough and scientific forest
throughout the public land states.
Legislation should be provided for the protec-
ton of the game and the wild creatures gener-
ter of game, which can by judicious protection be
preserved on our national reserves
for the people as whole, should be stopped at
once. 1t is, for instance, serious count against
our national good sense to permit the present
practice of butchering off such stately and
beautiful creature as the elk for its antlers or
tusks.
So far as they are available for agriculture and
to whatever extent they may be reclaimed under
the national irrigation law, the remaining public
The settler who lives on his land, and for no one
else. In their actual use the desert land law,
the timber and stone law and the Communication
clause of the homestead law have been so per-
,Ral fhn snfn Iat1 how