Arizona republican., 1916-03-18
Where the People
 May Have Hearing
PORK

To the Editor of The Republican,
 Sir: Is it possible that our repre- SentatiVes in congress represelt IS? | Do we all smell of pork Is it pos slhlc that any policy can Le so urgent or $" important to the welfare of the l nation that congress will consider it without investing it with a strong odor ol pork2 Was the army bill devised to the end that the nations military needs might be quickly and efficiently met? Nothing of the kind That was the talk to the galleries but the de- tails were devised to broaden the op- portnmtieS for patronage and for the distribution of pork Lard has been found to be the only efficient lubri- cant fol the political machine We elect politicians to congress and we must expect that politicians are going to play the political game That is their business. and the game is pork Fv our OWE civic Incompetence We AlNe taught the politicians that they will he more certainly returned tu places of bower and profit if they l band out the pork. What wonder is 1 II then that the politician keeps his 1 eyes focused on the pork producing 1 possibilities of any measure that comes | up for the consideration of congress" 1 our ridiculous little army. which re- | Curcs a whole week to mobilize 00p l men has. in the past. cost nearly as much fol it's maintenance as the enor- l nous military establishment If Eu- | ron" Why is this The answer is ! pork. Our lit;Ic army is scattered all over the United States. so that the l local tladcsmen may benefit bv the | patronage that comes from the pres l encc of the soldiers. If one of these useless posts were discontinued. the 1 voters in their neighborhood would consider their congressman as nolit- | lcallN impotent and negligent of their | interests He knows that to vote Sllcl | 2 useless post out of existence would | operate to his disadvantage hence he votes to retain the post and votes to retain all other useless posts. so that other congressman will help him. The 1 same reasons apply equally well to eX- | plain the retention of lot of useless | navy wards. At one of these wards it
 
 l do $100 worth of work But the vol CTS are indifferent so what's the odds. 1 Preparedness is almost certain to prove lamontablc fiaScO The pro- 1 posed army bill considers no heed of the army but it's size. Could anything he more worthless from a military polnt of view than forty eight separate armies commanded inv officers who are to receive their commissions from state politicians? Is this pork or pre- paredness2 And We are going tc stand tor II, Why? Because we have ne glected our civic duties until we have no sense of them We do not feel that
 We are brother citizens We lack co | hesi"n and unity of purpose Patriot
 ism has almost vanished. Our citi- zens are murdered on the nigh seas.
 The news of it makes the morning
 paper only a little less dull. We have
 become so used to reading of Amer .
 jeans being robbed and murdered ir
 Mexico that anything new in that line
 fails to command more than passing attention. The santa Ysabel massacre
 created q little comment but it was
 soon forgotten. and our government
 dld nothing The same would be true
 of the Columbus massacre were it not
 for the maintenance of mild interest by the Herculean efforts of a nation
 of one hundred millions to mobilize
 q troop of 1000 men and doing it in
 seven days instead of seven minutes
 'pitiahle spectacle surely, What
 this nation needs is a damned good
 licking.
 a deep and lasting humiliation And
 we are going to get it. To conquer
 us will be so easy and the rewards sc
 great that some real nation not 'toc ! proud [" fight" will place it's heavy