is true of the vast quantities of merchandise which are shipped to China via London and other European ports. Consul Fowler, of Chefoo, thinks that our trade with China is underestimated by at least one-third, and Consul-General Goodnow, of Shanghai, says that the returns of our imports last year were at least $6,000,000 too little. If correct figures could be had, Mr. Goodnow thinks it would be found that we buy more goods from China than does any other nation, and our total trade with China would equal the British (not including colonial), and would be far ahead of that of any other country. Even according to the official statements, our sales to China in 1899 exceeded those of all continental Europe, including Russia, by over $6,000,000, and our trade was then increasing faster than that of any other country. The Boxer outbreak almost annihilated our trade in North China, but in 1901 it revived notably. Imports from the United States last year were estimated at $25,500,000, and our total commerce with China at $42,000,000,

Cotton goods represent the largest item in our export trade to China, and we sell the Empire more cotton cloth than we sell to all Europe, to all of South America, or to all the other countries of Asia and Australasia and Polynesia combined. Eighty-six per cent of the total imports of our cotton goods in 1901 went through the northern ports of Niuchwang, Tientsin and Chefoo, and probably three-fourths of this total import, it is estimated passed into Manchuria. Our flour also is a growing import. Our condensed milk and canned fruits have become SO popular that cheap imitations have been placed on the market. Among the other articles which are gaining a foothold, the consuls mention lamps, tobacco, timber, nails, sewing machines, jewelry, electrical goods, and light agricultural implements. Consul McWade, of Canton, says that American goods have an established reputation in China, and are preferred to all other foreign articles. Besides these promising openings for our trade, the reports of the consular officers indicate that American capital is being invested in various enterprises in China-railways, mills, steamship lines, mines, land investment companies, etc. The favor with which America and American. products are regarded in the Empire would seem to indicate that the United States has an excellent opportunity of extending its commerce in this field, unless artificial obstacles are opposed to its development.

Stand up for America, and America will stand up for you.— Major McKinley to Republican Press Association of West Virginia, September 1, 1896.

REDUCTION OF THE ARMY.

IT IS NOW AT ITS MINIMUM STRENGTH.

It is unfortunate for the Democratic party that it has never had command of the United States Army in time of war, and by the exigencies of political strife, has been nearly always arrayed against the Army and with the enemies of the Government. It was so in the Civil War, and the Democratic party of the North became known as "the fire-in-the-rear party" and the Democrats popularly known as Copperheads. There were many Democrats who then resented this designation, and to escape it associated themselves with the Republicans in defense of the Government as "War Democrats."

The war for the freedom of Cuba gave promise of a changed condition, and all parties supported the President in organizing and equipping the Army for the war with Spain. That has revealed to the world the immense resources of the United States and the ability of the nation to raise armies and equip them for battle.

It taught the world to respect the power of this Government more than any event in our history. It taught Europe and our own people to respect the American Navy as the most perfect fighting machine on the seas.

It made the United States respected and feared in every country, and it brought us the friendship of all nations, for nations, like individuals, respect heroism and the power to conquer.

It taught the Old World that this country, without a standing army and without the shadow of militarism over it, could raise and equip the greatest and best fighting armies on short notice, and that independence produces men who are ready for war even in the most busy times of peaceful occupation.

It taught our own people that the soldier comes from no class or section, and that the man of leisure and money could shoulder his musket and fight beside the cowboy and the farmer and the artisan, enduring the same hardships and privations for the defense of the flag.

It also taught our people that those who wore the blue and those who wore the gray could fight together with the same heroic effort that was shown on the battlefields of the civil war, when they contended against each other in the greatest and bloodiest struggle of the world's history.

It was an illustration of the patriotism and homogeneity of the

American people when General Fitzhugh Lee, General Wheeler. and General Butler, of Confederate fame, commanded corps or divisions under the Commander-in-Chief, William McKinley, who had been a private soldier in the Union Army, and it found final illustrations in the Philippines, where the son of the great volunteer general, John A. Logan, gave his life at the head of a Texas regiment a demonstration that all sectional lines have been wiped out and the country reunited in defense of the flag under the leadership of President McKinley and President Roosevelt.

At the end of that short and glorious war this country stood first in military achievements and without a standing army. Its militarism is patriotism, and it has its illustration in the achievements of American patriots from Bunker Hill to Yorktown; from Fort Sumter to Appomattox; from Santiago to Manila Bay, and from Manila to Tientsin. These are all the achievements of a citizen soldiery, the only militarism ever known under the United States flag. There never has been a standing army that equaled one soldier to one thousand inhabitants, and there never has been an army fighting under the American flag for a selfish purpose. Our appeals to arms have been in the cause of great moral and humane principles. It is well to go to the record rather than to the catch phrase, invented to create sectional and partisan hatred in such matters. Increase in the Army.- Democrats in Congress were eager for war in 1898, and they aided in legislation to provide for an army. When the war began we had an Army of but 27,000 men. Congress provided for an increase of the Regular Army to 65,000 men, and gave authority to call a large number of volunteers. In May, 1898, the whole number of men numbered 163,592; in June, 208,239; in July, 265,529; in August, 272,618; in September, 268,181; in October, 225,375; in November, 179,186, and in December, 168,937. It was provided in the law that when peace was declared with Spain the Regular Army should fall back to 27,000 men and all the volunteers should be discharged. Peace having been established by the exchange of ratifications on April 11, 1899, the Army by force of law was reduced again to 27,000 men, which was confessedly too small to deal with the situation then existing in Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines.

The House then passed a bill increasing the Regular Army to 100,000 men. The Senate did not agree to this bill, but to overcome the objections of Democrats another bill was reported providing that the Regular Army might be recruited temporarily to 65,000 men, and that, in addition 35,000 volunteers were authorized, all of this Army of 100,000 men to be enlisted to serve until June 1, 1901, or for two years and four months. This bill was passed, the

Democrats and Populists in the Senate voting for it. It went to the House and was concurred in, only 32 negative votes being cast against it.

By this action all parties in Congress authorized the President to suppress the insurrection led by Aguinaldo in the Philippines. The President followed the law of Congress, organized the Army, and sent more troops to the Philippines.

In January, 1899, there were only 21,790 officers and men in the Army of the Philippines. By December of that year this Army had been increased to 59,722 officers and men, and the increase continued until in December, 1900, there were 69,420 officers and men in the Philippines. This Army was, however, enlisted for two years, and must be discharged by July 1, 1901. A new Army must be organized to take its place within six months from the time the Fifty-sixth Congress met. The House passed a new bill for the reorganization of the Army December 6, 1900. The Democrats voted against that bill, and the vote was 171 yeas to 131 nays. The Senate held the bill until February. All the Democrats in the Senate, excepting Morgan of Alabama, McLaurin of South Carolina, and Sullivan of Mississippi, voted against the passage of the bill. The vote in the Senate was 43 yeas to 23 nays. It became a law February 2, and left the President only four months to organize a new Army to take the place of that in the field.

The Democrats had aided in preparing for war and in authorizing the President to suppress the insurrection in the Philippines, but they were not willing to aid in continuing the Army until the work was done and peace restored.

The new law provided that the maximum strength of the Army should be 100,000 men and the minimum strength 59,540 men. The President never exercised his authority to raise an Army of the maximum strength. The army continued to decrease, and by the time the reorganization was effected, July 1, 1901, there were only 93,451 men in the Army. In fact, the President never organized more than 85,000 men under the new law, and that was the strength of the Army in August, 1901. Since then it has decreased until in June, 1902, the whole Army, officers and men, numbered only 67,000, and before the close of this year it will be at the minimum strength of 59,540 men. In the Philippines the Army has been reduced from time to time, and in December, 1901, its strength was only 40,050 men. The approximate strength of the Army in the Philippines in June, 1902, was 23,000 men, and when the orders already issued withdrawing additional troops have been carried out, the authorized strength to be retained there will not exceed 18,000. Within two years the Army in the Philippines had been reduced to less than one-third its strength in December, 1900.

DEMOCRATS OPPOSE ARMY APPROPRIATIONS.

"When I refuse to vote to protect the lives of American soldiers, I hope I shall be paralyzed."

This patriotic sentiment, uttered on the floor of the House of Representatives by Amos Cummings, of New York, in January, 1902, was in protest against the action of his party in opposing an appropriation to house and shelter the troops in the Philippines, to protect them from the torrential rains and miasmous airs of the region, and to furnish to the sick in hospitals a shield against the burning sun of the tropics.

Chairman Cannon, of the Appropriations Committee, had brought in the appropriation bill supplying urgent deficiencies for the Government service. Among the items was one of $500,000 for the shelter of the troops. Mr. Richardson, the floor leader of the Democrats, questioned the appropriation, holding that it was not a deficiency. He wanted to know where was the original law authorizing the expenditure.

Mr. Cannon of Illinois (Republican) answered:

"I say there is an Army of the United States. The Army is in service in the Philippine Islands. In the garrison at Manila are nineteen hundred soldiers, who are housed partially in the old Spanish barracks; partially, perhaps, in captured buildings; partially in rented buildings. The Army is there now under the law. It is necessary to clothe them and to subsist them, to house them, in some instances in temporary barracks, and they are using these buildings as permanent barracks. Now, in the operations of the Army, for the purpose of efficient operations, it is necessary, in the opinion of the President and of the War Department, to construct barracks about 6 miles out from Manila that will cost $500,000. If there be any law under which this appropriation would be apt in any bill without legislation it is the law that organizes the Army, that has placed it in the Philippines, and makes its necessary operations important to the public service."

The matter was debated at some length, and came up a day or two later in another way, Mr. Cannon presenting it in the form of an amendment to the bill, as follows:

"For the proper shelter and protection of officers and enlisted men of the Army of the United States, lawfully on duty in the Philippine Islands, to be expended in the discretion of the President, $500,000."

Democratic leader Richardson raised the point of order against