Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1904-12-12
Russian Folly.

RUSSIAN foIly. W
1t is necessary for us firmly to insist
upon the rights of our own citizens with
out regard to their creed or race without
regard to whether they were born here or
born abroad. 1t has proved very difficult to
secure from Russia the right for our Jewish
fellow-c1tlzens to receive passports and
conduct is not only unjust and irritating
toward us. but 1T is difficult to see it's wis
dom from Russia's standpoint. No con-
ceivable good is accomplished by it, If an
American Jew or an American Christian
misbehaves himself in Russia he can at once
be driven OUT but the ordinary American
Jew. like the ordinary American Christian.
would behave just about as he behaves here,
that is, behave as any good citizen ought
to behave and where this is the case it is
wrong against which we are entitled to
protest to refuse him his passport without
regard to his conduct and character. merely
on racial and religious grounds. In Tur-
key our difficulties arise less from the way
in which our citizens are sometimes treated
than from the Indignation inevitably eX-
cited in seeing such fearful misrule as has
been witnessed both in Armenia and Mace
donia.
The Navy. II.
The strong arm of the government in en-
forcing respect for it's lust rights in inter
national matters is the navy Of fbe United
States. l most earnestly recommend that
there be no halt in the work of upbuilding
the American navv There is no more pa
triOtic duty before 70 as a people than to
keep the navy adequate to the needs of this
coUntrys position. We have undertaken to
build the isthmian canal. We have under
taken to secure for ourselves our just share
in the trade of the orient. We have I'M
dertaken to protect our citizens from inn
proper treatment in foreign lands. We
continue steadily to insist on the applica-
ton of the Monroe doctrine to the western
hemisphere. Unless our attitude in these
and all similar matters is to be mere
hoastful sham we can not afford to aban-
don our naval program Our voice is now
potent for peace. and is so notent because
we are not afraid of war. But our protes-
tations upon behalf of peace would neither
receive nor deserve the slightest attention
if we were imDotent to make them good.
Lessons of the War. .
The war which now unfortunately RACES
in the far east has emphasized in striking
fashion the new possibilities of naval war
fare. Experiences of the war have shown
in conclusive fashion that while torpedo de-
stroyers are Indispensable, and fast lightly
armed and armored cruisers useful, yet that
the main reliance in any navy must be the
great battleships. heavily afmored and
heavily gunned Not Russian or Japan
csc battleship has been sunk by a torpedo
boat or by gunfre while among the less
protected ships, cruiser after cruiser has
been destroyed whenever the hostile squad
rons have gotten within range of one an
others weapons. Most of all we need to
continue building our fleet of battleships or
shiDs so powerfully armed that they can
inf1ict the maximum of damage upon our
opponents and so we'll protected that they
can suffer a severe hammerlng in return
without fatal impairment of their ability
to fight and maneuver. OF course ample
means must be provided for enabling the
personnel of the navy to be brought to the
highest point of efficiency. Our great fight
ing ships and torpedo boats must be cease
lessly trained and Unanswered in squadrons.
The Army.
BY law our army is fixed at a maximum
of 100000 and a minimum of co. 900 men,
When there was nsurrection in the Philip
pines we kept the army at the maximum.
Peace came in the Philippines, and now
army has been reduced to the minimum.
The guns now mounted require $4,000 men,
if the coast Notifications are to be ade-
quately manned Relatively to the nation,
it is not now so large as the police force
of New York or Chicago relatively to the
officers there are not enough to perform
the regular army work. 1t is very impor-
tant that the officers of the army should
be accustomed to handle their men IN
masses, as it is also important that the ma
tional guard of the several states should
be accustomed to actual field maneuvering,
especially in connection with the regulars.
For this reason we are to be congratulated
upon the success of the held maneuvers at
Manassas last fall, maneuverS in which
larger number of regulars and national
guard took part than was ever before as
sembled together in time of peace. No
other civilized nation has relatively to its
population, such diminutive army
ours and while the army is so small we
are not to be excused if we fail to keep it
at very high grade of proficiency
Great progress has been made in protect
ing our coasts by adequate Notifications
with sufficient guns. We should, however,
pay much more heed than at present to the
development of an extensive system of
floating mines for use in all our more i'm
portant harbors. These mines have been
proved to be most formidable safeguard
against hostile fleets.
The Philippines.
In the Philippine islands there has been
a continuation of the steady progress which
has obtained since our troops definitely got
the upper hand of the insurgents. The
Philippine people, or, to speak more accur-
ately. the many tribes who go to make up
the people of the islands, contain many ele-
ments of good, and some elements which
we have right to hope stand for progress.
AT present they are utterly incapable of ex-
listing in independence at all or of building
up a civilization of their own. l firmly
believe that we can help them to rise
higher and higher in the scale of civiliza-
ton and of capacity for self-government,
and | most earnestly hope that in the end
they will be able to stand, If not entirely
alone vet in some such relation to the
United States as Cuba now stands. This
end is not yet in sight, and it may be in
definitely POSTPONED if our people are fool
ish enough to turn the attention of the
Filipinos away from the problems Of
achieving moral and material prosperity. Of
working for a stable, orderly, and just gov
eminent and toward foolish and dangerous
intrigues for comDlete independence for
which they are as yet totally unfit
On the other hand our people must keep
steadily before their minds the fact that
the justification for our stay In the Philip
mines must ultimately rest chiefly upon the
good we are able to do in the islands.
do not overlook the fact that in the devel
opment of our interests in the Pacific ocean
and along it's coasts, the Philippines have
played and will play an important part
and that our interests have been served in
more than one way by the possession of the
islands. But our chief reason for continu
ing to hold them must be that we ought in
good faith to try to do our share of the
worlds work. and this particular piece of
work has been imposed upon us by the re-
suits of the war with Spain. The prob
lem presented to us in the Philippine
islands is akin to. but not exactly like, the
problems presented to the other great civil
lied powers which have possessions in the