Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1899 — "KING" LEARY OF GUAM. [ARTICLE]

"KING" LEARY OF GUAM.

Bow This Versatile Naval Officer Is Atetah isterinf Oar New Me. It Is not strange that among our diversely gifted people there should be found here and there a* man with an aptitude for kingcraft There have always been plenty of Americans who would have reached one, too, If thrones had been open to competition. But the division of labor has not gone that far and hitherto the deserving person has stood no chance against the tenth transmitter of a foolish face. So many a potential monarch among ns has had to look on while others muddled the royal business in a way to make him grit his teeth. Such a man was Commander Leary of the Boston Navy Yard till a turn of affairs led the government to take him away from routine duties and anoint him king of Guam. Not that there was a formal coronation, tor that would have offended popular sentiment And as to any future legends that he was burning cakes in a peasant’s hut at the time or that he was at his plough clad only in a tunic and had to send home for his toga, we may. say in advance that there is nothing in them. The one authenticated fact is that he became king of Guam. As king he has justified the hopes of all that knew him. There was nothing of the Bourbon about him—no blindness to the mistakes of his predecessors. He saw, for example, where men like Louis the Pious and Edward the Confessor had failed, and he soon wrote home that “Having disposed of the priests, rapid progress will be made and no further resistance will be encountered.” Rapid progress was made, such progress as is seldom seen in.a Pacific archipelago. The people were lazy and producing just enough food to keep them alive. In his ukase ofOctober 4 |ie commanded them to plant cereals and Vegetables. He has required every adult native to contribute to the support of the government. He has compelled each one to maintain twelve-hens and a sow. He has ordered them to bring tneir produce to the palace and sell It In short he has started them at the regular production of wealth out of which they are to discharge their debts and pay their taxes. /" In this there is a resemblance to the policy of Peter the Great but Guam is more backward than the Russia of Peter’s time, and the reforms are more sweeping. He may Jt>e compared to the Hohenzollem who beat idlers over the head with his rattan and made the apple women knit at their stall. But behind Frederick William was an army of 70,000 men, the best drilled force in Europe. On the other hand, when the Navy Department asked’ the ruler of Guam If he wanted more troops he replied that the only thing Le needed was an ice machine. Where other kings required standing armies be wanted only ice water. That, as an American, he felt he must have. And it is no mere matter of issuing decrees. These decrees are obeyed even when they run counter to the strongest popular traditions. A light and transitory marriage tie, or no marriage tie at all, is one of these, traditions. Yet when the decree went forth that people should marry, the entire adult population made a rush for licences, and the officers had more than they could do to meet the demand. These are the rumors that come to us from Guam, and of no man is it easier to believe them than of the present ruler. • It should encourage them who fear that we should be unequal to our new duties. Even for a queer anachronistic job like this we can find our man, and he fits in a good deal better than the average porphyro genitus.