Show our military strength secretary floyd hit the military necessity of the day as well as the peculiar sentiment of our people when he addressed himself with so much ardor to the improvement of the national arms other nation even those in m which human life is is cheapest are catching his idea that it is is a wise economy to male imke one thousand men with revolvers and repeating rifles worth w orth more in in the field than six six or eight ei ht thousand with the old style of pistols pr to and muskets and whatever he be does in in introducing breech load ers and other military improvements is is eagerly watched and followed up in in european armories armories the indians are now learning the force of long range range mimes and br breech bech loaders loader with which each man can ram rain twenty well directed shots in in a horde of savages in m a charge of ten minutes duration this lesson was taught in in the lite late decisive indian iman battles and will bear its fruit superior arms good pay pa and christian ian treatment manly efficiency in brief must alwa always s stand in in the place of numbers bersin in our army calculations there is a great but deep rooted and unconquerable prejudice against an increase increase of the standing army in all free nations the expense of maintaining it is is not so objectionable to our popular sentiment as the vague idea of a separate and powerful class which belongs to the government and lives ap apart art from the changeable sympathies of the masses our system of military strength rests on the intelligence organization and martial aptitudes of the people and hence their instinctive reliance on themselves to do their own whether it be in in defence of their own soil or in in what the british cabinet in m speaking of its pet piracies pi terms the spontaneous settlement of foreign domain texas and california are living records of the peculiar and energetic way in in which our people act out their instincts of progress As the french journalists demurely say of their new national phase of the slave trade these are interests in in which the government confines itself to guarding guardin 4 the honor of its flag from intrusion ana and leaves the rest to the unrestrained enterprise of its citizens large standing armies armies are essential components of those despotic governments whose whole in machinery is contrived to render the pr producing 0 millions the mere working tattle cattle and burden bearers of a limited class of privileged non producers but our proclivities are all the other way our aims aims and efforts are for the w weal eal of the masses we can neither give up the services services of armies armies of workers who are arc needed to till the soil drive our factories and bind the thai states together with railroads nor can we tax their labors for the support of one surplus regiment of drones with our immense immense indian infested infected frontier fro itier we re require qu i e a respectable military force for it i is s t th needful police of our border and seaboard sea board it should be maintained as cheerfully as the civic civic police of town and city and in in both cases we must be governed by a wise wise consideration of the I 1 varying aar ing wants of time and place agn under der many despotisms despotis ms a good rifle ride is is worth w orth more than a soldier and is is cared for accordingly but with us a soldier counts for the whole value of a free born bora man and in m this point of view view secretary floyd flod is is taking steps to arm him as benefits his worth the inventive invents e genius and mechanical skill of the country has been p put ut in in requisition to produce the strongest simplest and most efficient class of weapons that lieiman ingenuity can devise for army use and the result has already left everything hitherto known far in the rear there are arms now in in course of construction which at a trifling advance of cost will enable one soldier to do more in in close action than has ever been expected of six six and the whole world will be compelled t to 0 adopt this class of guns this revolution in in the character of arms will demand a higher grade of intelligence in in the rank and file and in in this advantage no country on earth can compete with the united unit ed states Floyds flo ds maxim that the best arms carried by the best men are the elementary parts of ou our r national strength is is sound doctrine anywhere states stales wash mash D C |