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Show ARMY PROMOTIONS. Recently Capt. John J. Pershing, Fifteenth cavalry, cav-alry, has been made Brigadier-General by the President. Pres-ident. By doing that he was promoted over 257 Captains, 364 Majors, 131 Lieutenant-Colonels, and 110 Colonels. Friends of these officers are indignant and assert that the special excuse for this advancement advance-ment is the work performed by Capt. Pershing while commander of a small force in the Lake Lanao country coun-try of Mindanao. Of this, it . is said, in its extent and results the achievement would have ranked during dur-ing our Civil war as one of a. thousand raids into the enemy's country to which no special attention was paid. All things are judged by comparison. What Admiral Dewey did in Manila bay was nothing to what Capt. Clark, of the Oregon did off Santiago, but the spirit behind it is what makes the exploit one of the most extraordinary in the annals of war. Admiral Dewey sailed with his little fleet into that harbor and annihilated the Spanish fleet there. He did not know what torpedoes would be in the path of his ships, or what actual forces the enemy had to meet him, but it was a clear case to everybody that if the fleet had been twice as big and if the harbor had been mined with torpedoes he would have gone in just the same, and would have done what he did or would have died in the attempt. That is what gives him his unequalled prestige. We, presume that the thought in the President's Presi-dent's mind was to give a covert notice to the officers offi-cers in the army to do things when there is a chance. That is the Roosevelt style. The Nation of New York which is always unjust un-just when it has an opportunity, speaking of this same promotion, says : "The resulting injury, is manifold; it intensifies intensi-fies the bitterness and dissatisfaction growing out of the advancements or. appointments of Grant, Wood, Mills and others. It puts a premium on slaughter in the Philippines as an easy way to high rank, and it does the gravest injury to the present Colonels of cavalry, some of whom, like Augur, Kerr and Morton, Mor-ton, have well earned promotion, etc." ' We do not believe that any harm has been done. Col. Grant is a son of the great Ulysses. Wood's promotion came first from President Mc-Kinley Mc-Kinley and his promotion under Roosevelt was simply sim-ply in the regular line of promotions. As to it putting put-ting a premium on slaughter in the Philippines that is a double sword, because, if it was necessary to kill some of these head-hunters, it was right to recognize recog-nize the fact, and no military officer was ever promoted pro-moted for not fighting when it was necessary. Gen. Funston showed" in San Francisco under the earthquake and fire that there was no mistake in his promotion, and soldiers will fight better under a man, if they know he has been promoted over older officers, simply because he is a fighter. War is no child's play, but as Gen. Sherman said, "It is hell;" and the man that is ready for any danger or any loss when the occasion requires it is the man that the soldiers under him trust, and, in turn, is. trusted by the Government. |