 |
| Gen. Nelson A. Miles. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Tuesday,
November 12, 1895.
UNCLE SAM'S MILITARY.
The
Annual Report of General Nelson A. Miles.
MANY
RECOMMENDATIONS MADE.
The
General Urges Coast Defense in Strong Terms—Argues in Favor of
Increasing
the Strength of the Army—Other Features.
WASHINGTON, NOV. 12.—The annual report of
General Miles, commanding the army, is made public. The personnel is shown to
be in excellent condition, well instructed, efficient and attentive to duty.
Liberal appropriations are required for public
buildings at the posts, many of which are out of repair. General Miles believes
that the peaceable conditions now existing among the various Indian tribes is
largely attributable to the presence of troops at suitable points, and to the
admirable conduct of the experienced army officers who have been placed in charge
of the principal agencies. While it is economical and desirable to have the reserve
forces of the army near the great centers of communication, General Miles urgently
contends that these points should be selected solely for their strategic value and
that the tendency toward concentration should not be carried to the point of depriving
the Western settlements of proper protection.
Under the head of coast defense, General Miles
states the condition of these defenses is such as to require decided and immediate
action for their improvement. The unguarded condition of our coast is known to
every first-class power, and our people should not be led into false security.
He quotes from his report of 1884 a strong
argument for the defense of Puget Sound and shows that since that time new Canadian
railroad connections have been established there, yet not a single gun has been
placed in position for defense, while those at the entrance of the Columbia are
obsolete and of little value.
It is true that some progress has been made
toward defending San Francisco, and a few modern guns and rifles have been
placed. These, however, are but a small part of the general plan for the
defense of the harbor, while San Diego is in the same condition as Puget sound,
entirely at the mercy of any foreign fleet.
General Miles recalls what he said in his
report of 1889 upon the absolute importance of the defense of the entire
Pacific coast, in view of the fact that it was possible for any naval power to
blockade every important port within 90 days, while it would take many years to
make a successful resistance and the country might be required to pay an
indemnity of $5,000,000,000. While the railroads might transport 1,000,000
brave men to the coast they would be useless without appliances to cope with
the modern engines of war, and with all our intelligence, pride, inventive genius
and enterprise we are as far behind in the modern appliances of war as China or
Japan. Such was the conditions six years ago, says General Miles, and such are
the conditions today, with the exception of the slight progress made at San Francisco.
The entire Gulf coast and ail the great cities
of the Atlantic coast, northward to Philadelphia, are entirely without modern guns.
In position are a few obsolete guns and none of these batteries could stop a
single first-class warship, much less a fleet. Some progress has been made at
New York, but
like San Francisco, only a small part of the project has been accomplished. With
one exception the cities north of New York are in a similar condition to those
south of it. Some guns and mortars have been constructed and some shipped to
their destination, carriages for them are under construction and emplacements have
been made to a limited extent.
General Miles, in support of his recommendation
for adequate coast defenses, points to the fact that the batteries at Moultrie
and Sumter, kept at bay for four years the most powerful navy of the world.
He says that our people cherish two
misleading delusions, first, that torpedoes can be depended upon to protect our
coasts, and, second, that its 4,000 miles of coast can be defended by a navy.
He shows that torpedo plants are useless without protective batteries, and that
the water in our principal harbors is so deep that light draught war vessels
might pass over torpedo mines without danger. He asserts that the recent
maneuvres in England have shown that even the powerful British navy is unable
to defend the British coast against a foreign fleet; therefore he argues that
the main reliance must be upon coast batteries.
General Miles argues for an increase in the strength
of the army, saying that there is no reason why it should be crystallized and
kept at one strength, as it has for years. It should increase with the growth of
the country and be determined by the census at a minimum of one soldier for every
3,000 population and a maximum of one in 1,000.
General Miles concludes his report with several
recommendations intended to benefit the condition of the officers and men and
attract to the military service the best element in the community.
FREIGHT
TRAIN WRECKED.
Engineer
Meets With a Terrible Death on the Lehigh.
AUBURN, N. Y., Nov. 12.—A northbound freight
train on the Ithaca and Auburn branch of the Lehigh Valley railroad was wrecked
at Levanna, a small station 16 miles from this city, resulting in the death of
Engineer Charles True and suspending traffic for several hours.
The train consisted of 11 loaded box cars and
the locomotive, and was running along at full speed, when the engineer observed
a pile of rock on the track which had evidently become loosened by the recent rains
from a high embankment and probably tumbled down by the jar of a southbound passenger
train which had passed along a short time before.
The engineer promptly applied the brakes and
reversed the engine, but scarcely checked the speed of the locomotive before it
dashed into the obstruction, derailing the locomotive, which ran along for 300
feet, tearing up the rails and demolishing the ties, but finally ran too close
to the embankment on the lake front, over which it toppled.
The fireman jumped as soon as the accident occurred,
escaping injury, but Engineer True stood at his post and was pinioned in his
cab, the escaping steam terribly scalding his face and the upper part of his
body.
His associates promptly extricated him, but
the flesh was so horribly burned that it fell off in bunches. He was carried to
the nearest farm house and a doctor summoned, but all efforts to save him were
futile.
He was 43 years of age and was for 22 years
an engineer in the employ of the Lehigh Valley. He leaves a wife and three children,
who reside in Ithaca.
Eight of the cars were demolished, together with
their contents. None of the other trainmen were injured.
The
Venezuelan Matter.
For the benefit of our very busy readers we
may recall that Venezuela is the most northerly republic of South America; that
Caracas, a city of 80,000 inhabitants, is its capital, while General Ivaquin
Crespo, who assumed office on March 14, 1894, is president. The favorite brands
of coffee—La Guayra and Maracaibo—are so named from the Venezuelan cities where
they grow best and richest. La Guayra is the principal seaport of Venezuela.
The population of the republic, which consists of eight states, is about
2,500,000.
In 1814 Holland ceded to England a certain
portion of Dutch Guiana, The boundary line between that and Venezuela appears
never to have been defined clearly in the minds of Englishmen. At the same time
in the territory which they want for themselves there are rich gold mines.
Since 1841 England has made five different claims for additional territory, not
one of which Venezuela concedes. The only way to settle the matter justly and
decently will be to submit the whole boundary question to arbitration, with the
distinct understanding that Venezuela is entitled to every foot of territory
she wrested from Spain at the time of the revolt of the Spanish colonies in
South America. That is the just and exact basis of settlement.
Some time ago two British government inspectors,
Barnes and Baker, were patrolling the territory in dispute, when Venezuelan
officers arrested them and drove them off. England considered this as a great
indignity, and now demands that Venezuela shall make apology and a money
reparation. This is the substance of the ultimatum lately sent from the British
government to President Crespo. There is accompanying it an implied threat that
unless the indemnity is paid England will seize some of the Venezuelan towns,
just as she seized the Nicaraguan port of Corinto and held it till her demand
for indemnity was met.
From the point of view of a citizen of the
United States England has not a shadow of right thus to bulldoze Venezuela. From
the United States point of view Venezuela seems to have been exactly right in
driving off the English interlopers.
Mother
Goose Social.
The ladies of the Baptist church of McGrawville
will hold a Mother Goose market Thursday evening, Nov. 14, at the residence of
Mr. Lee Maybury, North-st.
Mother Goose will be in attendance with her
children.
"Mistress Mary, quite contrary,"
will preside at a flower table selling bouquets and plants.
The Farmer's Wife with the Three Blind Mice
and the Queen of Hearts will act their respective parts.
Little Jack Horner will sit in the corner
eating his Christmas pie.
The Old Woman tossed in a basket will sell
implements to sweep the cobwebs off the sky.
Old King Cole with his Fiddlers Three will
let loose strains of music.
The King will certainly sit in the parlor and
count out ten cents of each person's money to pay for his supper, at which will
preside the Old Woman "who lived upon nothing but victuals and
drink."
Let all McGrawville turn out. Let the people
drop from the hills of Solon and Freetown. Load the electric car [trolley] with
good people from Cortland and surprise Lee Maybury and Mother Goose.
LOCAL
PERSONAL.
HON. W. J. MANTANYE left this morning for
Albany to attend a meeting of the state prison commission.
MESSRS. A. W. GRAHAM, Fred Melvin, Horace
Robbins, Ed Robbins, and Geo. Peters are in the vicinity of Summerhill to-day hunting.
Game dinners will be the order to-morrow without doubt.
MR W. A. DUNN this morning received a letter
from Mr. E. H. Brewer who, with his family, has gone to Florida to spend the
winter. The party sailed from New York Wednesday at 3 o'clock on the steamer
Algonquin, The letter was written on the steamer and was mailed at Charleston,
S. C., where the first stop was made. Mr. Brewer wrote that they had been
delayed by fogs and storms after passing Cape Hatteras. All the party were sick
and confined to their berths on Thursday and Friday, in fact four-fifths of the
passengers fed the fishes. Their [party of] ten were all well again and were on
deck again enjoying the fine ocean ride. The weather was perfect and they
expected to reach Jacksonville at noon on Sunday.
Police
Court.
The case of Fred Gaylord, who is charged
with jumping a board bill, has been adjourned to Dec. 3.
Four tramps occupied the cooler last night
and were this morning ordered out of town.
The case of The People against John Andrews,
charged with the illegal sale of liquor was called, defendant pleaded not
guilty and the case was adjourned to Nov. 22 at 10 o'clock A. M.
The case of John H. Howard, who was arrested
yesterday afternoon upon the same charge, was also set down for Nov. 22 at 10
o'clock A. M.
Charged
With Perjury.
Matthew Graham and Elizabeth Graham, his
wife, were arrested at their home near East Homer this afternoon by Chief of
Police Linderman on the charge of perjury in their testimony in the Rowe trial.
They were brought to Cortland and the case was held open to give them time to
procure counsel.
THE GOOD
GOVERNMENT MOVEMENT.
We rely upon the moral and material support
of all good citizens in the attempt to enforce the laws against the illegal saloons,
the gambling dens and the bad houses of this village. While many of our well
wishers are finding fault with us for not doing more, the saloon supporters are
abusing us in the most outrageous way for the work we have done. We are slow to
believe that any citizen not in league with the outlaws is influenced by the
low vilification that is heaped upon us. The Good Government club of this
village is made up of well-known, reputable citizens, whose sole object is to secure
a decent observance of law in the interest of good morale and good government.
There is no envy or malice in this work—no ill will to any one and no attempt
to subserve any personal interest. If citizens cannot undertake to enforce the
laws under which they live and which are the guaranty of their peace and
safety—laws which they know are flagrantly violated to the hurt of society—then
no duty of citizenship is honorable.
The course that we have pursued in this work
has been careful, honest, and, we believe, highly praiseworthy. Every step we
have taken has been after counsel with some of our best business men. We have
stooped to nothing low or tricky. We have done all within the law.
As one of the last resorts, men have been
employed to secure evidence. We knew that the saloon people would raise a great
hue and cry about this—that the detectives would be called spies, and the most
would be made of epithets. But the securing of evidence in this way is a most
common thing. If detectives could not be employed to detect the violation of
law, we should be at the mercy of the criminal classes.
It is perhaps enough to say that we are opposed
by the entire low saloon element of the village. What might have been expected
of this class of society has been done by them. And yet the extremes to which
they have gone, what they have resorted to in the trials, is simply astounding.
All these things we hope will soon be made public, so that liars and perjurers
and bribe-takers shall be held up to popular scorn, and meet with proper
punishment. We wish that the plea of Mr. N. L. Miller in the Bates trial and of
Mr. I. H. Palmer in the Rowe case could have been heard by every citizen. While
a few men are standing up and taking the brunt of this fight, we ask that they
have the moral support of every good citizen in the village.
HARD KNOCKS.
Within the last few days Good Government clubs
and other institutions of a similar nature have come into existence in many
cities. Their members band themselves together to promote purity in politics,
honesty in elections, and to advance the public welfare. Heretofore in many
cities the vicious and the depraved have in certain precincts been allowed full
sway. For many years no one dared antagonize Tammany on Election day in many
New York districts. There have been little Tammanys in many other cities that
have violated the laws, that have carried elections by force and fraud, and good
men have refused to imperil themselves by interfering.
These closing years of the century have
witnessed the rise of Good Government clubs, whose members are under obligations
to interfere with dishonest practices even at the cost of personal
inconvenience and trouble. Good men realize that they have not discharged the full
duty of citizenship when they walk to the polls and deposit their ballots. They
realize that they must also try to prevent dishonest elections where the police
refuse to do their duty and must themselves take the responsibility of
detecting fraud and reporting the offenders to the proper authorities.
In the last election in this city many members
of the Good Government club spent the day at the polling places. They were
prepared to present an emphatic protest against any illegal practices and, if
necessary, see to the arrest of lawbreakers. It is understood that they have
collected some evidence of violation of the election laws which will be presented
to the proper authorities. We hope that the club will be unflinching and uncompromising
in its prosecution of election offenders. If, as reported, one man was detected
buying votes in one election precinct in this city, the Good Government club owes it to itself to see that
he is punished to the full extent of the law. Any letting up now at the very
outset of its existence will be weakening and damaging to its moral influence hereafter.
In Baltimore some of the best citizens served
as watchers at the polls for the Reform league. One of these men was Rev. Charles A. Fulton, pastor of the Immanuel
Baptist church. At one time during the day he felt some one pass a gloved hand
across his neck. After a little his neck began to sting and he learned that
some sort of an irritant had been rubbed across it. It proved to be harmless though
annoying. The loafers and toughs about the polling place saw that Mr. Fulton
meant business and they finally gave him fair treatment and an opportunity to see
what was going on. That is what one minister did as a patriotic duty. Another
minister, Rev A. H. Thompson, pastor of Bennett Memorial church, served as a
watcher in another tough precinct, going to his post at 5:30 o'clock in the morning
and remaining there until 6:30 at night. Prof. Bliss of the Johns Hopkins
university also acted as a watcher for the Reform league, and while on duty had
his jaw fractured. These are a few instances which we gather from the Baltimore
Sun, showing the courageous mettle of the members of the Reform league in
Baltimore.
Men who are willing to go through such
treatment as that described above in order to promote honest elections are
heroes. Their citizenship is the genuine article. It is disgusting to find
citizens who think themselves too good and too proud to linger five minutes
about the polling place for fear they will be contaminated by their
surroundings. The citizen who preaches about the importance of honest elections,
but is unwilling to lift a finger to secure them, is not entitled to very much
respect. Somebody must take some hard knocks. Somebody must be willing to
go down into unpleasant surroundings and mingle with uncongenial people to see
that the law is enforced on Election day. All honor to the Baltimore ministers
and teachers and other members of the Reform league who were willing to do that
very disagreeable work. All honor to the good government men everywhere who are
making their influence felt for honest elections, not by passing resolutions
and issuing public addresses, but by personal work at the polls.
THE ROWE
CASE.
Matter
of Appeal to be Settled at Ithaca next Monday.
After the conviction of Charles Rowe, last
Thursday, for selling liquor without a license on Sunday, Oct. 18, an appeal was
taken before Judge Eggleston, for a new trial in the county court, on an
affidavit signed by Rowe, setting forth among other things that one of the jurors
who sat in the case was a member of the Good Government club, that he had paid
money towards the prosecution and was therefore a party to the action and not
eligible to sit as a juror in the case; that others of the jury were so
prejudiced against the crime of selling liquor without a license that they were
incompetent to sit; that the chief of police was under the control of Dr. Higgins,
the complainant, and that he had summoned talesmen to try the case from a list
made out by some one under the direction of Dr. Higgins; that the evidence of
detectives should be carefully scrutinized by courts and juries; that The
People were allowed, under objection of Rowe's counsel, to give improper
testimony in that they were allowed to show that Rowe kept a bar with bottles upon
it and a place having the outward appearance of having liquors for sale, etc. Judge Eggleston requested that the counsel for
The People should be heard in the matter and, upon this being refused, the
motion was denied.
The appeal was then taken to Judge Forbes at
Canastota, and allowed by him, ex parte. Mr. Palmer then immediately prepared
affidavits and had them signed and sworn to by the jury, attorney, Dr. Higgins
and Chief Linderman, and a certificate from Justice Bull which completely
denied every material allegation in the affidavit that would assist in getting
the appeal. With all these affidavits he went to Canastota yesterday and got an
order from Judge Forbes for Rowe to appear before him next Monday at Ithaca and
show cause why his appeal should not be set aside with costs.
BREVITIES.
—The supervisors' rooms have been connected
with the telephone.
—The sale of tickets for "A Trip to Chinatown"
which appears at the Opera House
Thursday night is very large.
—Mrs. Ryan, who lives at No, 151 Homer-ave ,
had three turkeys stolen from her last Saturday night. They were taken from a
tree in which they were roosting.
—All the stores and meat markets with one
exception were closed at 8 o'clock last night. The change is particularly
agreeable to the clerks.
—The jury in the case of William Olmstead
against William Hess which was tried in Justice Dowd's court Saturday decided
that the bicycle in question was the property of Mr. Hess.
—The board of supervisors have to-day been
in session as a board of canvassers going over the vote of the election last
Tuesday. The full report of proceedings will be published to-morrow.
—The annual meeting of the New York State
Dairymen's association will be held in the rooms of the Business Men's
association in Syracuse on Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 10 and 11. Noted
speakers of the country will be present.
—A hard frost last night so stiffened the
mud that the roads were very rough this morning. A wagon heavily loaded with
sand broke a forward axle on Tompkins-st. in front of the STANDARD building and
the load had to be transferred to another wagon.
—Mrs. John Palmer of South Cortland has to-day
given to the Cortland County Home for Aged Women the sum of $500. Mrs. Palmer
has offered to do the same for the Cortland hospital and the transfer of money
is expected to be made on Thursday. The terms of both gifts are that the donors
shall receive the interest on the money during his lifetime.
—The first train on the new Erie & Central
New York railroad crossed the bridge over the Tioughnioga Monday afternoon. The
train carried ties for extending the road. Several rods of track east of the
bridge were also laid, both ties and iron being put down. The engine and train
were in charge of Superintendent of Bridges D. B. Smith.
—Nine Cortland ladies have formed a current
event club which meets once in two weeks at the home of some one of them. Five
minute discussions of the events of the past fortnight are in order, each lady
having looked up her topic thoroughly and aiming to introduce as many facts as
possible within her allotted time for the information of the others. In this
way the members keep fully posted on current events. There is sometimes a
little music, and often before closing selections are read from some up-to-date
book or some standard work. Discussion of the reading follows. The meetings
promise to be very profitable as well as pleasant for all concerned.
—The Thimble Bee met with Mrs. E. A. Didama
yesterday afternoon, and every one of the twenty-one lady members was present.
This is an organization which has been in existence for several weeks, and
which has already proved very pleasant for the members. Weekly meetings are
held. The ladies gather with their fancy work at about 2 o'clock and work until
4 o'clock. Then light refreshments are served. According to the arrangement
they must not be elaborate, or the hostess will be fined. The next hour is at
the disposal of the hostess who provides some little amusement as a surprise
for the others, and great fun has come out of this so far. Altogether the
Thimble Bee is a great success.
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