The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-06-13
sprNnnxG rHr MONEY.

SPENDING THE MONEY.
 Are we a great war Nation, with . big N? You bet we are. if greatness can be measured and estimated by doi- lars. As proof of this. take the appro- priations for the army and navy a | quarter of century ago and now. Tn 1883 the total appropriations for the two branches of the service amounted in round numbers to forty-two million dollars In 1908 the total was two hundred and eighteen million dollars. That is, the army ana navy expenses at present are five times as great as they were twenty-five years ago. Can good Americans look with favor or sat- isfaction on this continued increase in war expenses7 VIII 1t not continue to grow as long as the present style of Government is kept upf The militar- ists and the jingoes seem to have no l higher conception of Government than | to get and maintain a bigger army and | navy than any otner poWer-aho '"@ people foot the bills.
 Now, it ought to be plain to any un- prejudiced mind that such vast expen- ditures are not needed and are not creditable to the government. IT Roosevelt could have had his way. the shamefully large appropriations we have referred to would have been in- creased by several millions each year. but it is bad enough as 1t is. We are continually being told that the way to | preserve peace Is to be always pre- pared for war. That is all right enough. and the United States is always pre- pared for war. The past has amply proven that no difficulty about filling up the ranks of our army will be ex- perienced whenever fighting men are required, even though the war should be wholly unnecessary and indefensi- ble one. We have a citizenship always ready to take hand when soldiers are needed.
 But "a big navy is the favorite war; cry of the jingo element of the country. They are continually preaching and prating about the absolute necessity of having more and bigger warships than any other nation on the globe can command. and they would have us be- lleve that unless this great navy Is forthcoming at once the very existence of the Republic is endangered. We don't exactly understand their theory. but if carried to its logical sequence. it would be necessary to have a powerful fleet at all times in every bay and harbor along our vast coast line. lest some piratical fleet dash in and do something, we don't know what. They might even kidnap the President, for all we know.
 But even this would not be enough, for the great oceans must also be watched. We need another great fleet to patrol the seas and watch out for | any hostile fleet or tug-boat that may leave foreign country. else some en- ] vious outside nation may slip over in the dark and make junk of some por- tion of our defensive sentries. We do not know how some of these apprehen- sive big-navyers sleep at night for we should think they would at all time keep at least one ear open to detect the roar of hostile guns. We are al- most sorry for them.
 | Of late we have had 1t continually dinned into our ears that war with Japan may come at any time. Only a day or two ago we noticed that one of the watchful statesmen declared that if our fleet does not remain on the Pacific coast we may expect Japan to come across at once and tow San Francisco | to Tokio. or do something else terrible and demoralizing. It would not be l complimentary to the author of that warning to say that he talks nonsense. but he approaches it very closely. Ja- pan is in about as good condition to attach Lhe Onateo ob1tSS AS present as Venezuela is, and we are in no more danger from one than from the other. All such talk Is for the purpose of melting our Government to build more war vessels; only that and nothing more. Japan is very well satisfied to be let alone just now.
 | THAT 0VINDICATION.n