Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 November 1877 — THE ARMY. [ARTICLE]

THE ARMY.

Hesitancy About Appropriating Large Sums for Its Support and Why. I’hilade.lphiii Times. In view of the great abuses of our .military establishment for partisan purposes, the evident disinclination of the people, as expressed through their representatives in congress, to spending a cent more than may i e necessary for i:s support, and the still ! greater aversion to increasing its strength, are by no means surprising. Despite the inherent distrust of standing armies that characterize every republic, the people oi the United States have had until recently no disposition to be niggardly towards thafew brave men who place their lives in the hands of their cenntry that others may live in peace under their own vine and fig tree. Indeed, after the war for the Union was over the danger was that not too I’ttle but that too much would be done for the soldiers. All of us felt that, no honor was too great for them; they were our boast, our pride, the bulwark of our nationality and liberties. Other appropriations might be questioned, but not those for the comfortable maintenance of the army. If this feeling has been dissipated the army is not to blame, nor yet the people; but the political party that hss made the bayonet a, tool, and that has traded in the necessities of the soldier. The party, not the soldier, has disgra<**d the uniform and the flag and scattered the Are of patriotism. Appropriations are doled out piecemeal. not because the army is distrusted. but because we have seen to what base uses, in its habit of unquestioning obedience. it may be put. Ts the old pride in the army Is r.o be quickened and take form in liberal provision for its sustenance and equipment, as hf'avi’n send it tnvy be, it must be imie through a revival of

confidence in the executive department of the government, to which, under the constitution, its employment is confided. Some steps in this direction have been taken by President Hayes, and the situation is so changed that no doubt the country heartily demands adequate provision by congress at this session for any legitimate needs of the military establishment/ Moreover, in view of the Indian hostilities, the labor troubles and the. mutterings on the Mexican border, it will not be disposed to sustain the call fora reduction of the present force. We now have say twenty thousand fighting men, such as they are, well officered and tolerably well equipped. Recent experience shows that these are not too ma*’ ny. All should be done for them that liberality, tempered by a cor sideration of economy, may justify, and the quicker congress attends to this business the better. But because a reduction is not advisable, it does not follow that an increase is expedient. For that it is well enough to wait; all the elements in this problem of the maintenance of a standing army are not yet understood.