Show i 1 THE ABUT J a q Gen Sherman cornea forward with his annual appeal to Congress to increase 1 crease the strength of the army and t l puts forth what he evidently believes J are good reasons in support of his demand His reasons ought not to i and we believe will not prevail with t i Congress It will be remembered 1 that when the army was limited to 1 25000 men Sherman and his subordinates j f subor-dinates all shouted that its usefulness l had been practically destroyed The a West it was predicted would be at the mercy of murderous redskins who would have fall sway in their I j hairlifting industry Now as a I matter of fact the Indians have not rioted much in late years and have usually been speedily and severely I punished for their meannesses None of the dire events predicted has actually Ii act-ually transpired and with the exception excep-tion of now and then a brief period I of overwork the soldiers have not suffered suf-fered from extra toil or hardship The zj 1 trouble with the army has been that tl too large a portion of it has been kept 1 t 1 in the east and south for show purposes f purpo-ses and too email a portion assigned tJ to active service A few regiments tl judiciously stationed could awe into 4 quiet submission to reasonable rules fl i1 t all the Indians remaining in the H country especially as the broad territory fl terri-tory roamed over by the redsidns has u i been largely settled upon by whites in i such numbers as to protect themselves ii j them-selves If one will reflect upon this matter a little he will not only fail to I i discover a reason for increasing the I military power of the nation bat find r jl plenty of things suggesting its reduction 1 reduc-tion The government is at absolute a peace within itself and with all the I world and to all appearances is likely k t j to continue so Onethird of the 1 present army is amply sufficient to j protect settlers against hostile Indians = 1 ° 1 diana Then what other use io there for a standing army save the guarding of the few forts and other government property not safely I protected by the ordinary civil police j system of the country America has j I BO need to guard against encroachments encroach-ments upon her territory or her rights even Danger from without is reduced l i re-duced to the minimum being a t filmy shadow wbile loyalty and pat i Tfoiism have their homes in the ret re-t public It is not as if we had to maintain a taiga army to be ready at i 6 moments notice to repel an invasion I i inva-sion nor is ear army necessary to i keep the people loyal and in subjection subjec-tion Were the republic in danger t the first tap of the drum would call together such an army of brave intelligent I in-telligent patriotic fighters as no other 1 nation could summon and all they + would require to become a force against which no earthly power could S prevail would be the slight training and martial drilling that intelligent VS9C educated officers might give Our military and naval schools should be r maintained and the education and 1 Draining be of the highest pot Bible character but let the army be i reduced rather than enlarged I r t ti1n |