Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1904-12-08

gotten within range of one anothers weap-
ons. There will always be large field OF
ore usefulness for cruisers. especially OF ane
the number Of torpedo-boat destroyers, pay
Ing less heed to their having knot or two
extra speed than to their capacity to keep
the seas for weeks. and If necessary. for
months at a time. 1t is wise to build sub
marine torpedo boats, as under certain cir
cumstances they might be very useful. But
most OF all we need to continue building our
fleet of battle-ships. or ships so powerfully
damage :upoh our opponents. and so well
protected that they can suffer a severe ham
merng In return without fatal impairment
OF their ability to fight and maneuver.
Ot course. ample means must be provided
FOR enabling the personnel of the Navy to
be brought to the highest point of efficiency.
Our great fighting ships and torpedo boats
must be ceaselessly trained and maneuvered
in squadrons. The officers and men can
only learn their trade thoroughly by cease
less practice on the high seas In the event
OF war it would be far better to have no
and ineffective type. ships which. how
ever good were yet manned by unframed
and unskiled crews. The best officers and
men in poor ship could do nothing against
modern Warship Is useless unless the Off
GERS and men aboard her have become
In our Navy has improved In an extraor
dnary degree during the last three years
and on the whole the types Of our battle
ships are improving; but much remains to
be done. Sooner or later we shall have to
provide for some method by which there will
be promotions for merit well for SEMI
GRITTY. or else retirement of all those who
after certain age have not advanced be-
yond certain grade; while no effort must
be spared to make the service attractive to
the enlisted men in order that they may
be kept as long as possible In It, Reservation
public schools should be provided wherever
there are navy-yards.
Even where 1t Is not possible to secure in
other nations the observance of the prin-
ciples which we accept as automatic. 1t is
necessary for us firm
RiRhts Of American ly to insist upon the
=. . rights Of own citi-
SA'A"o"s <AoFo"u' zens without regard to
their creed or race;
without regard to whether they born
here born abroad. 1t has proved very
difficult to secure from Russia the right for
our Jewish fellow citizens to receive pass
ports and travel through Russian territory.
Such conduct Is not only unjust and irri-
tating toward us, but 1t Is difficult to
it's wisdom from Russia's standpoint No
conceivable good is accomplished by it. If
an American Jew or an American Christian
msbehaves himself in Russia he at
once be driven out; but the ordinary Ameri-
Jew. like the ordinary American Chris
tian. would behave just about as he behaves
here that is. behave as any good citizen
ought to behave; and where this is the
1t Is wrong against which we are
entitled to protest to refuse him his pass
port without regard to his conduct and
character, merely on racial and religious
grounds In Turkey our difficulties arise
less from the way in which our citizens
sometimes treated than from the indg-
nation Inevitably excited in seeing such
fearful misrule as has been witnessed both
in Armenia and Macedonia.
Within the last three years the United
States has set an example in disarmament
w
law our Army is fixed at a maximum Of
100000 and a mini
The Army. Of 10000 men.
When there was in
surrection in the Philippines We kept the
Army at the maximum. Peace came in the
Philippines. and Army has been
reduced to the minimum at which it is pos
sible to keep it with due regard to it's eff
cheney. The guns now mounted require Is
600 men, if the coast fortifcations are to be
adequately manned. Relatively to the Ma
ton it is not large the police
force of New York or Chicago relatively to
the population of either city. We need more
officers; there are not enough to peform
the regular Army work 1t is very important
that the officers of the Army should be
customed to handle their men in masses,
as it is also important that the National
Guard of the several states should be ac-
customed to actual field maneuvering, es-
pecally in connection with the regulars. For
this reason we are to be congratulated upon
the success of the field maneuVers at Man
aSSas last Fall maneuVerS in which larg-
er number of regulars and National Guard
took part than before assembled
together in time Of peace. No other civil
ized Nation has, relatively to It's popula ton,
such diminutive Army ours: and while
the Army is so small We are not to be ex-
cused If fail to keep it at very high
grade of proficiency. 1t must be necessarily
practced the standard for the enlisted men
should be kept very high, while at the same
time the service should be made attrac-
tive 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 emerg-
ency, to put into the field irst-class
Army corps which should be. a whole at
least the equal of any body of troops of like
number belonging to any other nation.
Great progress has been made in protecting
coasts by adequate fortincations with
sufficient guns. We should. however. pay
much more heed than at present to the de-
velopment of an extensive system of floating
mines for in all more important
harbors. These mines have been proved to
be most formidable safeguard against hos
tile fleets
1 earnestly call the attention Of the Con-
gress to the need OF amending the exist
ing law relating to the award Of Congress
sional medals Of honor in the Navy
to provide that they
N.d,Is ~ uopor may be awarded to
. commissioned officers
III the navy and warrant officers
well to enlisted
men. These justly priced medals given
in the Army alike to the officers and the en-
listed men. and 1t is most unjust that the
officers and warrant officers of
the Navy should not in this respect have the
same rights their brethren in the Army
and as the enlisted of the Navy.
In the Philippine Islands there has been
during the past year a continuation of the
steady progress which has obtained ever
since troops definitely got the upper
hand of the insurgents. The Philippine peo-
pie, or, to speak more
The Philippines. accurately, the many
tribes and even races,
sundered from another more or less
sharply who go to make up the people of
the Philippine Islands. contain many ele-
ments of good and some elements which we
have a right to hope stand for progress. At
present they are utterly incapable of exist
ing in independence at all of building
up a civilization Of their own. / firmly be-
lieve that can help them to rise higher
and higher in the scale of civilization and of
apacity for sef-government. and 1 most
earnestly hope that in the end they will be