The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-10-23

: minimum fixed at 1000, with author
! ity in the President to raise it at any
/ time to 100000, President Roosevelt
strongly commends this increase ana
ridicuIes the objections made to 1t. In
! 1896 the regular army numbered
about $4,000 men, and no party plat
form suggested that the number WAS
insufficient. After the treaty or peace
between this country and Spain had
been agreed upon, and before hoStlll-
ties broke out at Manila, President
Mckinley recommended the increase
in the army and a Republican Con-
greSS embodied the recommendation
IN law. We are now spending upon
the army and the navy more Than
thirty times as much as we spend upon
the Department of Agriculture, and
the Republican leaders do not intend
at least they do not promise--any
decrease in military ana naval expen-
dItureS. But two reasons have been
given for the increase in the army
one is its use in labor troubles, ana
the other is to be found in the i'm
perial policy upon which the country
mas embarked since the Republicans
came into power. The fact that tnG
forts, instead of being built upon the
frontier, dis formerly are being bullt
near the large cities is proof posltivr
nestle rather than for foreign pur-
poses.
Democrats who believe in arbitra-
ton as a means OF settling difficult
ties between labor and capital; Demo-
Gratis who favor the eighthour day
and desire the abolition of government
by inJunction-tnese believe that the
army was large enough eight years
ago, and prefer to employ the Depart
rat haP nl1o thn ~.
Department in the adjustment of dis
puteS between corporations ana Their
employees. AS Judge Parker stands
for a reduction of the army these
Democrats have an additional reason
tor supporting him IN preference TO
President Roosevelt.
The Philippine question has not yet
been settled, and it presents one of the
most important, if not the most impor-
FAINT, issue between the parties. we are
now administering colonial policy In
the Philippine Islands directly at va
rance with our principles of govern
ment and contrary to the wishes OF
the F'ilipinos. President Roosevelt,
without daring to defend or even to
state the PRINCIPLES upon which our
government acts in the Philippines.
contends that we must remain there
without defining our purpose am;
without pledge to the Filipinos. He
JumbleS duty and destiny and dollars
together as if he We're not sure which
would furnish the best pretext for
Il carpet-bag governmell
in the islands.
Judge Parker indorses the Demo-
cratic platform on this subject anu
declares himself not only in favor of
Philippine INDEPENDENCE but in favor
of an immediate promise of independ-
ence. We cannot hold the Fillpinos
as subjects without danger to our
form of government; we cannot
make them citizens without endanger-
ing our civilization and taking upon
ourselves the solution of q race ques-
ton with which we are now wrest-
ling.
If Judge Parker does nothing more
than terminate Imperialism and rid
the country of the virus of monarchy
in colonialism he will JUS
tify the support of all who supported
me in 1896 and i'm 1900. Walpole said
during the Revolution that England
could not maintain her position in
that war without asserting principles
which, if carried out. would destroy
English liberty as we'll as American
liberty; and so, today, Republicans
cannot defend the administration
policy in the Philippines without as