Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1904 — READY FOR FRICTION. [ARTICLE]

READY FOR FRICTION.

Rumors are current that some officials believe it might be wiser to provide fewer battle ships at this session, and to authorize in lieu of them a group of cruisers. This extraordinary theory, which will serve only to confuse the committees, is said to be based on the necessity of “balancing the fleet." It is quite true that additional cruisers, especially of the “scout" class, are needed, and probably they will be ordered, but to recommend them as substitutes for ships that take so long to build, and that constitute the first line of defense, is losing the substance and grasping at the shadow. —New York Herald. How combative this all sounds. It is gravely argued that we need more cruisers, especially of the “scouting" class. Against whom are we scouting or are we going to scout? Is some powerful nation moving on us in force, creating the necessity for having scouts out, so that they will not pounce on our coast and surprise us while we are asleep? We must have more battle ships. We must look after the “first line of defense." Worse yet. To an innocent reader out in Arizona Territory it might seem that we are at this moment engaged in war or that somebody had declared war against us, or that we were about to declare war against somebody else. It’s all right, though. We should have a great navy. We have set out to build one, and we must go ahead with it And while we are building it it would be foolish not to make it conform to all the modern inventions and appliances of war. > It would be absurd to build a toy navy. We

are at peace with all the world. We are in a state in which it would be inhuman, wicked and altogether senseless to have a war of any sort. It would be utterly impolitic to have one. There is nothing in the horoscope that leads remotely to the idea of a just war on par part. There is everytning for ns to lose and nothing to gain by a war. And if we had no navy at all, except such as might be required for ordinary const defense, there is no nation that would invade our shores without being disastrously whipped. The war idea of the republic is defense of its own territory and integrity, and we have always been pre-eminently successful at that. But times and conditions change, and now we are getting ready to whale the enemy before he gets half way across the ocean. Or, perhaps, we can keep him scared away by a formidable showing of ships and gone. Or we may sail over and right into his ports and bombard his cities, just to show him that we are a dangerous people to fool with.

There i§ no occasion, now or in sight, for us to go to war. We had a splendid career as a true world Power for many, many years with a navy that was not much larger than required to fire a salnte or to send a few marines ashore to protect a Consul when some “bum” insular Government was in a state of “revolution.”

Things are not as they were though. It was a great surprise when our gallant fleet sailed into Manila Bay and overthrew the Spanish boats almost in a twinkling, and without the loss of a man on our side. It was a glorious victory, and our patriotic people became enthusiastic over it. Their blood was up immediately. The triumph at Santiago followed, and now we feel that we are rapidly becoming a real fighting Power. There may be another surprise some day. Nobody can when it may cotae. If it comes at all it may be in the shape of an enemy who will be harder to “get away with" than Admiral Montejo’s tubs. So let us have a big navy. It has come to this, that we must either have but a small perfunctory establishment on the seas or a formidable armament afloat. The American blood is up, and pride of country and the flush of triumph have taken the place of sage advice and calm philosophy. The Enquirer inclines to the belief that if the question of having a great navy or only an ordinary one were submitted to the popular vote the majority for bigness would be overwhelming. The last fuss we got into was under as mild a mannered commander in chief as any country ever had —one in whom the graces of peace were thought to be transcendent, and whose memory is now cherished as that of a great example of Christian citizenship. We defeated Spain and liberated Cuba. Should we have gone further? Our representatives in the Peace Congress at Paris were instructed to acquire the Philippines by as benignant an Administration as the sun ever shone upon. And thus we took a war of conquest on our hands, and it can hardly be said to be over yet..

What are we to expect if we ever get a real “man on horseback” at the head of the Government, with Congress as inert as it has been for five or six years in the mutter of taking a hatid in great affairs? Build the ships and put heavy guns on-them, and-call on “the flower of the country” to tread their decks and stand “behind the guns.” We should also have an army, for it is on land that the “man on horseback” will make the best appearance. Manila and Santiago have been the only recent incidents to satisfy the cravings created by the gory deeds and brilliant achievements of our naval heroes of other days. We have a large enough navy now to make war reasonably sure, under the homely philosophy of the plain citizen who has learned what danger there is in going around with a chip on his shoulder.

And if war is to come it seems to be a reasonable proposition that we should have boats and guns enough to lick the enemy, whoever he may be. Run up the flag! Sound the tocsin! Bang!—Cincinnati Enquirer.

According to a new City Directory to be issued soon, Indianapolis now has a population of 229,697, u gain of 9,280 in the last year. This is a gain of over 50,000 since the census of 1900.

If anything would open the eyes of the people of Jasper county to the condition of affairs at the county poor farm, of which the Democrat has been “preachfng” for a long time, it onght to be ki the publication of the requisitions for supplies required for each three mqnths as published in* this paper last week. Another point that it would be well to remember in this connection is that the specifications call for the very best of everything—best Minnesota flour, Royal baking powder, best coffee, tea, etc., —while not one-fourth of the tai-payers of the county think they can afford nor do they use the very best grades of such goods on their own private tables. Wes will venture to say, also, that there are not twenty-five private families in Jasper county —if there is one — that consumes 111 pounds of granulated sugar per head annually.