The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1909-06-04
Wednesday.
Hopes for Tariff eIll soon.

ropes Tor IarIW Bill soon.
AT York, Pa, the president ex-
pressed the hope that the tariif quos.
tion would soon be settled,
81 have been called an optimist," he
said FOR predicting that congress
would adjourn by June 20. Perhaps
| am, But IL the Lord is good to us
aud the weather gets hot enough I'm
June | think our national legislators
will be mighty glad to get out those
two close chambers ut Washington"
Speaks Of Dead Heroes.
In his address President Taft said
1--WE are gathered at this historic spot
today to dedicate monument to tho
memory of officers and enlisted men
of the regular army who gave up
their lives for their country In the
three days battle, II is but tardy
recognition of the nations debt to It's
brave defenders whose allegiance was
purely to the nation without local col
or or strengthening of state or mu-
nlcipal pride.
"The danger of standing army,
entertained by our ancestors, Is seen
In the exceptional restrictions and the
complaints registered in the Declara-
ton of independence, 1t has always
been to awake prejudice against the
possible aggressions of a regular army
and a professional soldery and cor
respondingly difficult to create among
the people that love and pride in the
army which we find today and fire.
qrently In the history of the country
aroused on behalf of the navy. This
has led to varied and changeable
policy in respect to the regular army.
Standing Army Once 80.
| At times 1t has been reduced to all
most nothing. In 1874 there were but
eighty men who constituted the reg
ular army of the United States; of
these, Battery f, of the Fourth artil-
lery constituted fifty-five of them; but
generally the absolute necessities In
the defense Of the country against the
small wars which embrace so large q
part of our history have induced the
maintenance of regular force, sma1n
to be sure, but one so well trained and ,
effective as always to reflect credit
upon the nation.
| Today as a result of the Spanish
war; the added responsibilities of our
new dependencies in the Philippines,
Porto Rico and for some time in Cuba.
the ground with sense of the inn
portance of our position as q world
power have led to the increase in our
regular army to a larger force than
ever before, but not larger in proper
ton to the increased population and
wealth than in the early years of the
republic.
Should Not Reduce Army. "a
1t should not be reduced.
The profession of arms has always
been an honorable one and under con-
ditions of modern warfare it has be-
come highly technical and requires
years of experience and study to
adapt the officers and men to it's re-
quirements. The general purpose Of
congress and the American people, IL
one can say there is a plan or pur-
pose, is to have such a nucleus as a
regular army that it may furnish a
skeleton for rapid enlargement i'm
times of war to a force of twenty
times its size and at the same time be
an appropriate instrument for accom-
plishing the purpose of the govern
ment in crises likely to arise, other
than war;
All Honor to Regular Army.
All honor to the regular army of
the United States. Never in it's his
tory has it had stain upon its es-
cutcheon. With no one to blow it's
trumpets, with no local feeling or
pride to bring forth its merits, quietly
and as BELTS a force organized to
maintain civil institutions and subject
always to the civil control it has gone
on doing the duty which it was it's to
do, accepting without a murmur the
dangers of war whether upon track
less stretches of our western frontier,
exposed to arrows and the bullets of
the Indian, or in the jungles and the
rice paddles of the Philippines, on the
hills and in the valleys about Santiago
in Cuba, or in the campaigns of the
civil war itself and it has never failed
to, make record of duty done that
should satisfy the most exacting lover
of his country"
Neigh Dam Washed Out.
oh oh