River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1902-12-04


Total .......................... 1880
With the execution of this order
the regular army will have been re-
duced to the minimum of enlisted
strength, which, in the Judgment OF
congress, a wise policy requires US
to maintain as an insurance against
| future attack.
Among the most important sugges-
| tons in the report is one for the es-
tablishment of general staff OF otfl-
GERS, acting independently of the ad-
ministrative staff of the army, whose
duty it shall be to direct and superin=
tend the movements of an army OF in
vasion. Still another is for the estab-
| lishment, through act of congress, of
permanent militia as an adjunct of the
regular army.
The Canteen.
Referring to the operation of sec
ton SO of the act of February 2, 1901,
which prohibits the sale of beer and
light wines in post exchanges, said
in my last report that a great body
of reports had been received which in
Dictated that the effect of the law was
unfortunate, but that [ thought a suf-
ficient time had not elapsed to give
| the law a fair trial, and that the OBJ
servation and report of its working
would be continued during the ensu-
ing year. A great number of addi-
tiona1 reports have now been received,
and they confirm the impression pro-
duced by the earlier reports. | am
| convinced that the general effect of
| prohibiting the use of beer and light
wines within the general area of the
army post is to lead the enlisted men
to go out of the post, to frequent vile
resorts which cluster in the nefghbor-
| hood, to drink bad whisky to excess,
and to associate intimately with
abandoned men and more abandoned
women; and that the operation of the
| law is to increase drunkenness, disease
of the most loathsOme kind, insubor-
dination and desertion, and moral and
physical degeneration.
Trade in the Philippines.
The trade of the islands has been
greatly hampered during the past year
bv the ravages of rinderpest, causing
mortality in some provinces of over
90 per GENT. among the carabaO, and a
consequent shortage of food crops.
Business in many sections has been
seriously interrupted by an epidemic
of cholera, yet the imports for the
fiscal year 1902 were greater than in
any previous year in the history of the
archipelago, and exports were ex-
ceeded in but two previous years, 1870
and 1889. The total merchandise, ex-
elusive of gold and silver and govern
ment supplies, imported during the
fiscal year 1902 was $32, AL 42, as
against $30,279 ,406 for the fiscal year
1900, and the total value of merchan-
disc exported during the fiscal year
1902 was $23, 927, $40, as against $23 ,214,-
GAS for the fiscal year 1901 and $19,-
Isl, 068 for the fiscal year 1900, an in
crease of six per cent. in value of i'm
ports for the fiscal year 1902 over the
fiscal year 1901 and of Sc per cent. over
the fiscal year 1900, and an increase in
the value of exports for the fiscal year
1902 over the fiscal year 1901 of three
per cent, and over the fiscal year 1900
of 81 per cent. The imports from the
United States amounted to $4,035 ,243
in 1902, as against $2,855,685 in 1901 and
81, 657, 7O1 in 1900, or an increase for
the past year over 1900 of 143 per cent.
The value of merchandise exported to
this country in 1902 was $7,691,743, as
against 2,572, O21 in 1901 and $685.
100 in 1900, showing an increase in
favor of the latest period over 1900 of
11S per cent