Arizona republican., 1904-09-26

 of their own vicious habits, which so ineapacitates them from the perform ance of manual labor as to render them unable to earn a support"
 rms specified requirement. of inca pacity is in effect set aside by order No IS as to all persons over 60. The War closed nearly 40 years ago. In the meantime many of our sailors and sol- diers long survived the age of 62 and passed away without receiving any pension. Skillful pension attorneys hunting through the statutes failed to Ina there a provision giving a pension 10 all who had reached 62. Many prominent veterans urged the justice or congressional action giving a service pension to all veterans. Bills to that effect were introduced in congress And not until March of this year did anyone ever claim to have made the discovery that the president had power 10 treat the statute as if it read that when claimant had passed the age of oz years he is necessarily disabled and only half ahle to perform manual labor and therefore entitled to a pension.
 me present pension commissioner indicated his view of the order when in a recent address, he thanked the pres ident for what he had done and ad-
 
 that the law might be passed to the same effect. s.
 Full considerance after all seems not to have been placed on the defense of JuStlhcation, for it is pleaded in miti- satlon that a former democratic pres ldent did something looking in that dlrection Even if that were so-which Is not admitted-our present duty would be none the less plain and inn perattve. Our people must never toI- crate the citation of one act of usurpa- ton or power as an excuse for another The first may possibly be due to mis- take, the second. being based on the hrst, it cannot be. In explanation. how ever, It should be said that the order relied on simply provides that the age or I5 years should be regarded as evil dence of inability to perform manual labor. Few men are able to perform manual labor at that age, but nearly all nen are at 62. The first order is based on fact that experience teaches. the other is based on the assertion of that which is not true as a general rule.
 FOREIGN RELATIONS.
 The foreign relations of the govern ment have of late years assumed spe- cial importance. Prior to the acqui- sition of the Philippines we were prac- ticaily invulnerable against attacks by foreign states. Those tropical posses sions, however, 1000 miles from our shores have changed all this and have Tn effect put us under bonds to keen the peace. The new conditions cail for a management of foreign affairs the more circumspect in that the re- cent American invasion of foreign mar kets in all parts of the world has ex- cited the serious apprehensions of all the great industrial peoples. It is es- sentlaI therefore, more than ever to adhere strictly to the traditional poi- icy of the country as formulated by It's first president and never. in my Judgment, wisely departed from-to in- Yite friendly relations with all nations While avoiding entangling alliances with any. Such policy means the cultivation of peace instead of the qualification of war and the rninding of our own business in lieu of spectacu- lar intermingling with the affairs of other nations. It means strict obser vance of the principles of international law and condemns the doctrine that q great state, by reason of its strength. may rightfully appropriate the sover- eighty or territory of a smaller state on account of it's weakness. Ii means for other American states that We cIasn, no rights and will assume no functions save those of a friend and of an ally and defender as against European az gressions. It means that we repudiatp the role of the American continental policeman; that we refuse to act as debt collectors for foreign states or their citizens; that we respect the fn- dependence and sovereignty of such American state and its right to pre- serve order and otherwise regulate its own internal affairs in its own way: and that any intervention in it's affairs by us is limited to the single office of enabling it's people to work out their own political and national destiny for themselves free from the coercion of any European state
 EXPENSES OF GOVERNMENT.
 There is not a sentence in the re- publican platform recommending re- auction in the expenditures of the government; not a line suggesting that the increase in the cost of the war de- partment from s34,OOO, 900 in 1866 to S115,OO0,0O0 in 1904 should be inquired into; and not a paragraph calling for q thorough investigation of those depart ments of the government in which dis honesty was recently disclosed.
 The people however, can by their votes If they desire it, order such an investigation and inaugurate a policy or economy and retrenchment It is safe to say that this will not be ac. complished by endorsing at the pous