Year: 1879

Inc UT AScp1EsAhehts


A great part of the annual report of the
Secretary of War consists of recommends
tions founded on subordinate reports of
bureaus in his department which we have
already published. We print an abstract
of the remainder. Some of the minor
points touch concerns which have relation
to debatable matters in the local affairs of
this State. For example. the Secretary deals
with the convict labor question in the mill
tary prison at Fort Leavenworth, and says
that the manufacture of boots, shoes, tent
pins and chairs is already carried on there
soon to be added, and it is also proposed to
introduce the building of wagons and am
balances. All these supplies, however, are
strictly for the consumption of the army,
and the labor is not hired out to contrac-
tors. Another such point is in reference
to dumping ashes, ballast and other ma
terials tending to shoal harbors, and he
recommends federal legislation to prevent
such wanton deposits and punish the
perpetrators. Among the interesting minor
recommendations is one for the enlistment
of cooks and bakers on extra pay and the
establishment Of schools for their instruc-
ton; another for law to punish gambling
in the army, that chronic vice of frontier
service; and another for an appropriation
to prepare maps of unexplored districts
liable to be traversed by troops in Indian
warfare, of which the ignorance of the pre-
else topography of the Ute country in the
recent hostilities illustrates the need. The
army for year past are chiefly interesting
as affording figures on which to make a
comparison between the colored troops and
the white, and in ply sical hardihood the
the former do not appear to be much in
ferior.


Passing to larger matters the Secretary
wisely insists that diminution Of the
strength of the army would be dangerous.
to the public safety in Indian affairs, not
to allude to any other considerations. He
says truly that almost all the disasters
attending Indian hostilities in recent
years-which have cost us since the
close of the rebellion the lives of no
less than ffty-five commissioned off,
GERS, including such rs Generals Candy
and Custer and Major Thornburgh, to-
gether with proportionate number
amoag the rank and file, not to speak of
the wounded-have been due to the made
quacy of our military force. Not an en-
listed man can be spared from its present
strength. In regard to the negotiations
pending with the Utes concerning the MUIR
ders at the White River Agency and the
bloody attack on Thornburgh's command
there will be no dissent from the Secretary's
declaration that any weakening of the gov
ernments demand for the surrender of the
offenders will be prolific of Indian wars.
The Secretary's estimate to Congress for
the necessary appropriation for the next
fiscal year is little more than forty million
dollars, which is two millions less than the
amount appropriated for the year that
ended last June and fourteen millions less
than the aggregate of the sub-estimates of
his bureaus. The chief reduction from these
sub-estimates has relation to expenditures
upon rivers and harbors, and the Secre-
tary's figures in this connection administer
a rebuke to Congressional extravagance.
The only item in which he urges an impor-
tant increase in the appropriation is for the
preservation of existing Notifications and
works of defence from decay. He declares
that the amounts allowed for this purpose
during the last five years have been grossly
insufficient to save them from waste.


In respect to the armament Of the coast
of the United States against foreign attack
tie Secretary recommends, as heretofore, q
policy of observation of what is doing in
other countries before committing ourselves
to any theories, and meanwhile no serious
expenditures save upon the torpedo system
and for rifing smooth-bore cannon.