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Show MORE ABOUT SOLDIERS. Maintaining armies and navies has always been a grave question in all periods of the world's history. In America in the past this problem has not been a particularly grave one because our standing army has been comparatively small and we have relied on recruiting volunteers in case of any unpleasantness with other nations. In war time a man who stands as a target for the enemy's guns is a hero but in times of peace he is made an outcast of. There is a ' prevailing prejudice against the soldier in times of peace for at least two reasons. First, that he draws very small pay, second, that his life is supposed to be a lazy one. Now, would it not be a good idea for the statesman of our country to remedy this matter. It could easily be done by giving the soldiers some useful employment to occupy their time and thereby increase their income. During war times soldiers are called upon to do numerous difficult tasks, in the army the officers arc supposed to have technical knowledge that would fit them for any exigency that may arise from moving a river bridge to building mountains. It will be remembered that Napoleon, during a military campaign cam-paign in Italy, when someone reminded him that his forward march would be checked by the Alps, said, "There shall be no Alps," and he and his men proceeded in an effort to make that statement come true by moving the Alps. In the United States there are thousands and thousands of miles of deplorable roadways, why not put the soldiers to work building roads, bridges and other useful things, paying them for it and thus removing from them the ban of laziness and idleness. A, friend asked us the other day why we had quit knocking and finding fault with certain members of the community. Our answer J is, that whenever we see a fault in a public official or a citizen that I we think should be drawn to the attention of the public we are ready and willing to direct attention that way. Wc know of no man who is powerful enough, influential enough or rich enough to suppress the publication of any story or article in this paper, that the management think should be published, and on the other hand we know of no man or set of men who can get anything printed in this paper about anything any-thing or any individual, if the men who are conducting this publicv-tion publicv-tion arc not convinced that it should be printed. We shall from time to time as we progress, have occasion to take sides on various issues that we think arc of public concern and when that time arrives wc shall have pronounced opinions and give expression ex-pression to them in as forceful a manner as possible. But any individual indi-vidual who believes that the chief function of a paper should be to knock and find fault and quarrel, differs with us, for in our judgment a publication should have a constructive policy, building and boosting, boost-ing, and that fault finding, criticising and knocking should only be done when it will aid in improving or bettering conditions and should not be indulged in merely to cater to the depraved tastes of degenerate degener-ate individuals who thrive on spicy gossip and nauseating yarns. The railroad companies have often maintained that there is no revenue in hauling passengers, that their only source of income is from their freight departments. Can it be possible that that is the reason the political campaign managers arc sending out canned speeches and condensed political oratory to the different parts of the country to be served out to the unsuspecting public on the phonograph? phono-graph? It only remains now for the political spellbinders to have moving picture exhibitions of themselves and we will be able to get through a political campaign without any unnecessary excitement. |