The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-28
srENnrx0 THE MONEY.

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 vsriiy and truly jingoism is still rampant in- our midst--or In the midst- of eoneress. at all events On Friday of last week the House voted to authorize the building of two new battieships at cost of ten million dollars each--of the peoples money, be it remembered. Tn the course of the debate. Mir. Hepburn. Of Iowa. accord ing to the report. found e reason for the increase of the navy in the wariike character of the American people Every generation Of Ameri- cans" he declared. has had it's war, and probably the next generation will have it's war"
 Is not that e poor argument for extravsgance: "The people of the United States" says The Hartford Times. "are now spending for mili- tary armaments. fer which there is no justification except the one stated by Mir. Hepburn. more than . hun dred millions of dollars year which they do not need to spend, and which can only be raised by new taxation or by increasing the national debt. The deficits of the next two years. caused by this desire to enable the politicians to indulge in the luxury of another foreign war within the next quarter of century. will amount. according te Mr. 1Tawney. to nearly $500. .ooo,OOO. At that rate the public debt could easily be doubled within the next decade"
 Is there to be no limit on this use- less extravasance? Are the people of the United States to suffer a contin- ued increase of their burdens in or der to gratify what MT. Hepburn calls the warlike character of the American people? And this reminds us that Senator Hale. of Maine. in the course of the debate regarding in- crease of salaries and other expenses used these strong words:
 The annual expense of maintaining a single one of the big battleships ss.ooo tons: 5o per cent larger than the original English Dreadnought-- will be four times as much as every increase in this bill as reported by the yet We shall be asked to add not a few hundred thousand dollars. not e few million dollars but many. million fore this session ends. to increase the military establishments of the gov ernment When I say the military es- tablishments I mean the army and the been disturbed by these moderate in- creases of salary is that they are SO small in the aggregate, in the levy which they make upon the taxpayers of the country, that they do not arouse in me any marked objection.
 We shall never reduce the expenses of the government, which are becom- @ bs in the conS,tion of thrifty rh %HSf[ ansn who cuts his. garments according to his cloth ana keeps. his expenses some where near in range of his income; we dangerous deficit that will stare us in the face at the end of this Con- gress. a deficiency which will proba- ply amount to more than Sl20.O0o00o off and other expenditures under our legislation constantly increasing-we shall never meet this grave question, the gravest which confronts this Con- gress in its waning days, until we take in hand. not simply this small matter of salaries and a few hundred thousands of dollars, but the enormous expenditures that we are asked to make for the military side of the gov-i ernment. a .e7s -A- .
 The sShAtOaPs ds6rsss and and. arguments ought to be convincing but 1t is more than likely that they win not be. The jingoes, the statesmen with blOodlust in their hearts and blood-blindness in their eyes. will never cease their de- mands until we get Congress of sanity and regard for the taxpayers. The appropriation of money by mem bers of Congress and State LeSislA- lures is an easy thing to do. and no thought Is given to those who have to pay the money. nor to the uselessness of the expense.