The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-12-07

oIlcers or lne army SnOulQ De accus- toned to handle their men in masses, as it is also important that the Nation al Guard of the several states should be accustomed to actual field man oeuyering. especially in connection with the regulars. For this reason we are to be congratulated upon the success of the field manoeuyers at Manassas last fall, manoeuvers in which larger number of regulars and National Guard took part than was ever before assem- bled together in time of peace. No oth- CT civilized nation has, relatively to it's population, such a diminutive army as ours; and whle the army is so small we are not to be excused if we fail to keep it at very high grade of proficiency. It must be necessarily practiced; the standard for the enlisted men should be kept very high, while at the same time the service should be made as at tractive as possible; and the standard for the officers should be kept even higher-which, as regards the upper ranks, can best be done by introducing some system of selection and rejection into the promotions. We should be able, in the event of some sudden emergency, to put into the field one first-class army crops, which should be, as whole, at least the equal of any body of troops of like number belong ing to any other nation.
 Great progress has been made in pro- tecting our coasts by adequate fortif- cations 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 important har- bors. These mines have been proved to be a most formidable safeguard against hostile fleets.
 Medals of Honor in the Navy.
 I earnestly call the attention of the congress to the need of amending the existing law relating to the award of congressional medals of honor in the navy so as to provide that they may be awarded to commissioned officers and warrant officers as well as to enlisted men. These justly prized medals are given in the army alike to the officers and the enlisted men, and It is most un- just that the commissioned officers and warrant officers of the navy should not in this respect have the same rights as their brethren in the army and as the, enlisted men of the navy.
 The Philippines.
 In the Philippine Islands there has been during the past year continua- tion of the steady progress which has obtained ever since our troops definite ly got the upper hand of the insur- gents The Philippine people, or, to speak more accurately, the many tribes, and even races, sundered from one another more or less sharply, who go to make up the people of the Phiiip- pine Islands, contain many elements of good, and some elements which we have a right to hope stand for pro-. gress. At present they are utterly in- capable of existing in independence at all or of building up civilization of their own. I firmly believe that We can help them to rise higher and high CT in the scale of civilization and of ca- pacity for self government, and most earnestly hope that in the end they will be able to stand if not entirely alone, yet in some such relation to the United States as Cuba now stands. This end is not yet in sight, and it may be ildef- initely postponed if our people are foolish enough to turn the attention of the Filipinos away from the problems of achieveing moral and material pros perity, of working for a stable, orderly and just government, and toward fool ish and dangerous iiltrigues for com plete independence for which they are as yet totally unfit. tt'
 On the other hand our people must keep steadily before their minds the fact that the justification for our stay in the Philippines must ultimately rest upon the good we are able to do in the islands. do not overlook the fact that in the development of our interests in the Pacific ocean and along its 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 loidiuos ouL OuI Giipel ICdSOiE iuE Sull-f tinuing to hold them must be that we ought in good faith to try to do our share of the worlds wrk, and this par ticular piece of work has been imposed upon us by the results of the war with Spain. The problem presented to us in < the Philippine Islands is akin to, but not exactly like, the problems present. ed to the other great civilized powers which have possessions in the Orient. There are points of resemblance in our by the British in India and Egypt by the French in Algiers, by the Dutch in Java, by the Russians in Turkestan, by the Japanese in Formosa; but more distinctly than any of these powers we are endeavoring to develop the natives themselves so that they shall take an eyer-ircreasing share in theirA own gov ernment, and as far as is prudent we the public servants are Filipinos are already admitting their representa- tives to a governmental equality with our own. There are commissioners, judges and governors in the islands who are Filipinos and who have exact- ly the same share in the government of the islands as have their colleagues who are Americans, while in the lower ranks, of course, the great majority of Within two years we shall be trying the experiment of an elective lower holisa in tha Philinnine lepislatiIra IF