*
'Cbe Conservative.
H /
iiificaut fact that even in Great Britain ,
where the regular army must bo main
tained by voluntary enlistment , recruits
can now only bo found , according to a
statement lately made in one of the
English journals of the highest repute ,
"among the dregs of the population. "
The thinking bayonet is a force. The
privates who carried them in the Span
ish war for removing the oppression of
Spain from Cuba saved the United
States forces at Santiago from the dis
aster threatened by the alleged incapac
ity of the general in command , of many
of the subordinate officers , and of the
war department. None can honor
these thiukiug bayonets more than those
who deplore the errors by which they
were brought to immolate themselves in
the present contest.
The soldiers of the volunteer army in
the Philippine islands are endowed with
the right to vote. That implies the
right to think. The right to think
implies the right to a supply of all
printed matter which may enable them
to vote intelligently. The violation of
the mail by the postmaster general in
the lawless effort to prevent such information
mation being given to volunteers was a
step toward military despotism , futile
and feeble as it may have been. After
the taking from the mail of the eight
pamphlets , falsely called seditious ,
which I sent , it became superfluous for
me to make any further effort to give
information to these troops. Your pa
per and many others have carried the
substance of the pamphlets and all the
paragraphs which are called seditious
to these troops. If any method could
have been devised which would have
made it certain that the volunteers in
Manila would receive all the informa
tion that I or any one else could
give them , I know not how it could
have been made more effective than by
the violation of the United States mail
by the postmaster general.
Soldiers not Mere MucliiiicH.
You remark that , "The thinking bay
onet is an excellent weapon so long as it
confines itself to thinking how most ef
fectually to execute orders. When it
wanders into meditation whether its
orders ought to be executed or not , it is
getting its owner in the way to be tried
and executed for mutiny. " That may
be for a time true. But the com
mon school and the common education
which are pervading even Germany , are
making all bayonets think. May it not
bo held that the way out from military
despotism is through the thinking bayo
net ? May it not be true that wars of
aggression are due to the ignorance o :
the masses of the people and to the in
capacity of the governments by which
they are entered upon ? When the
thinking bayonet marks every soldier
the hell of war will be near its end.
The thinking bayonets among the vol
uuteora who may live to return from
Manila to this country may soon aid the
opponents of militarism in putting a
stop to criminal aggression. Those of
us who are old enough to have grown
up in the old abolition and free-soil
; inies were ' 'not born in the woods to bo
scared by an owl , " however loud he
may hoot. Our purpose is to promote
blinking among men who might other
wise bo led to volunteer or to enlist in
the army at the present time. Our pur
pose is to put before them the ghastly
conditions to which the army of the
United States is now subjected in the
Philippine islands. We may refer them
to the testimony given by the special
correspondent of the Burlington HawkEye -
Eye in regard to the awful conditions of
the men coniiuod in hospitals in Manila ;
wo may refer them to the letters of offi
cers as well as of soldiers , becoming more
and more numerous even in the admin
istration papers , which dare not refuse
to print them. We propose to promote
such action in congress as may stop the
supplies both of money and men for ag
gressive warfare. Wo propose to stop
the effort to subjugate the people whose
right to an independent national exist
ence cannot be contested by any believer
in the principle of liberty or by any one
who is prepared to sustain the Declara
tion of Independence. The advocates of
militarism and of the subjugation of the
Philippine islands pretend to believe
that their opponents are few and feeble.
They are mistaken. The conscience of
the people of this country has been
stirred to its very depths.
Trouble Ahead.
It is the admitted right of every vol
unteer soldier in this country to think ,
to act , and to vote. The regular soldier
will think whether his right is admitted
or not. The conscript armies of Europe
will become thinkers the wider the ex
tension of common education. It is
dangerous for the individual couscripl
to act in accordance with his convic
tions. By and by regiments , brigades
and divisions will carry thinking bayo
nets. When that time comes it will be
more dangerous to the military caste to
attempt to enforce discipline than it is
now for the soldier to resist. The bay
onet is more potent than the sword
The thinking bayonet will be irresisti
ble. Socialism , however erroneous may
be its concepts from the economic stand
point , is ono of the great forces by which
militarism may soon bo overcome
Affiliated labor , somewhat blindly strug
gling to resist wrong is bringing about
a union of the workmen of all countries
for maintaining the rights of the masses
against the abuse of privileged classes.
Men who maintain militarism , placing
the position of the soldier and the nava
officer above that of the merchant auc
the man of affairs , merely constitute a
few survivals of the brute element in
man. The thinking bayonet will become
como as potent in suppressing them and
n maintaining the rights' of the masses
against the abuse of the military classes
as gunpowder became potent when in
vented by making the common man at
arms more than equal in force to the
seignior or overlord clad in armor.
'War is hell , " and the doom of militar
ism is inscribed upon the wall.
Thinking men are coming to our sup-
sort in increasing numbers with aug
mented force , soon to bo reinforced by
drinking men who have boon forced to
carry bayonets to the Philippine islands ,
now returning. We do not believe that
wrong can bo made right because a
weak mid unstable administration has
committed the country to the wrong.
The way out is to do right and to stop
wrong. Wo hold that the effort to sub
jugate the inhabitants of the Philip
pine islands , to inako them colonial
vassals , and to govern them by force of
arms is morally , socially and politically
wrong , and on that line wo intend to
continue resistance until the wrong is
righted. EDWAUD ATKINSON.
Boston , Juno 14 , 1899.
There seems to
AN OLD ,
OI > TKUST. bo a trust in bicy
cles , sugar , whis
key , oil , steel and iron and possibly in
hoop-skirts and soda-pop. But queerly
enough there is "no trust" in the Chicago
cage platform of 1896.
That combination which syndicated
all the he-hysterics , vagaries and tumul
tuous emotions of the populists , freo-
silver-republicaus and deluded demo
crats never declared a dividend. But it
was thrown into the hands of Receiver
Coin Harvey by Allen , Jones and Tel
ler , and showed up as its most valuable
assets the doctrine of the free coinage of
silver in unlimited quantities at the
ratio of 16-to-l , the denunciation of the
writ of injunction together with a lot of
leather lungs and tireless tongues and
an importunate demand for more money
from its disappointed stockholders.
This old , odd trust of the silver smel
ters and refiners is' reorganizing and
again asking the public to subscribe for
its stock. However , nobody with com
mon souse will trust the republic in the
hands of the trust of the Bryanarchists.
Mushroom-juice , injected into the
veins , has been found by a French ex
perimenter to give immunity from
snake-poison. Most people think that
mushrooms , or "musharooons , " as they
are apt to call them , are scarce ; but
this is not so. All toadstools are mush
rooms.
Of Triplor , the man who was going to
make liquid air without using up any
thing , The American Machinist has this
to say : "Whether Tripler is simply
ignorant or a conscious humbug is open
to question. It is obvious that his state
ments must be explained on ono or the"
other hypothesis. "
