Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1909-08-20
THE NEWSPAPERS NIGHT
- MARE.

We do not know what it is that
causes our esteemed contemporary, the
Richmond News-Leader, to have par
oXysms of the following kind. In a
recent editorial on the troubles in Spain
it thus Eliminates
Spain finds herself in the same hui
initiating, eXasperating and disastrous
position in which these United States
would be if we were required to engage
in war on land. The Spanish are sup
posed to have standing army, but now
that the reserves have been called into
action the commissary department has
broken down. Probably the transpor-
ton, hospital and quartermaster de-
partments are equally bad. Therefore
an army composed, presumably OF men
who are willing and able to fight, is
paralyzed and helpless and compelled
to stand precariously on the defensive
against semi barbarous foe.
1t will be well for us here to learn
from this pathetic lesson. ALI the
money and valor we can command
would be useless to us without proper
numbers of men trained not only to
fight, but to take care of themselves
and TO conduct the details of operations
ignorance of which means fr!ghtful
waste of life and strength, if not des-
truction. This country with fifteen
millions of able bodied men should be
able TO put into service million men
reasonably familiar with the details of
| soldiers work and with every depart
ment for a force of that size equipped
| with men acquainted at least with the
outline and general principles of its
! operation.
| The United States has had three wars
since 1872. All were of her own MAX
ing. The Mexican war, the Civil war
and the Spanish war. The war with
Mexico was land grabbers' scheme,
and if you would blush for your coun-
try read what Gen. Grant has to say of
| it in his memoirs. The Civil war needs
no comment here. 1t was war of foul
and filthy aggression, forced on an in
nocent and unwilling people, by a
| bloodthirsty lot of fanatics, led by a
president who declared he would pillow
| Virginian with cannon balls, and who
under no circumstances would be ap-
peased until there had been ia little
blood letting" The third and last was
the "War" with Spain, if that trouble
can be dignified with such name.
That was the celebrated war of "be-
nevolent assimilation" in which few
have particle of pride. We needed
no large standing army to be ready for
either of these conflicts. They were all
| forced on the nation by the party in
power, and as that party made them it
might just as well have taken ten
years as one, to prepare for them. If
not ready the fault was all its own. No
one will deny that the war with Spain
was most uncalled for war, and is
one of the meanest blots on American
history. 1t is safe to say we will never
have another war unless we "make"
it. The larger the army the more ag-
gressive the nation becomes and the
more certain to make war.
Put couple of pistols and bowie
knife or two in the girdle of a bully,
and start him out, and see how soon he
will get into trouble. Send the same
party out unarmed, and he may posi-
bly, go to dozen cake walks, several
church festivals, number of pic-nics,
a wedding or two, circus, and attend
every court day for a year without g
boistrous word, or dangerous gesture
There is about as much necessity for 9
large army in the United States as
there is for sand storm at Primers
Point The United States is fortified
on the east and west by two oceans
over which armies cannot march, anC
over which no nation with as much
sense as is accredited to government
mule would ever attempt to pass them
by any other mode. On the north we
have Canada, and on the south Mexi
co. These two countries can be relied
on as making no aggressive move
ments. They will not soon commit
ouIClOC. lhCy AdNC oOluC Nj lCli
as we'll as discretion. If we should be
come involved with Japan-a thing
the advocates of large army and navy
parade before us, and which is the only
bugaboo available-a large army in
such conflict would be worth about
as much to US as leg that had been bit.
ten off by shark would be in a sprint
ing match. We could never get man
OF all OF our armies to Japan, and Japan,
if she had men to feed to crows would
never attempt to send one of them over
here. The cry for a large army and
navy is coupled with the cry for large
pension roll, and all are the foster chill
dren of the protective tariff. Unless
we keep up the enormous costs of our
army, navy and pension roll, which
now amount to 70 per cent. of all our
expenses, we cannot expend the tariff
revenues pouring in on u.s. Then tar
ifs must be lowered. We have no use
for any increase in these criminal eX-
penses save to help out the tariff lord,
and we fervently pray we may never
be further loaded with this precious
| freight. We wish our friend in his
sleep would dream more sweetly.
Senator stones encounter with the
Pullman porter was "because he failed
to bring the whiskey promptly" so
says the Senator. The Senator is from
Missouri where people must see things.
Just what kind of things the Senator
may have been seeing has not been