against which, it is a saying of ancient acceptance, even the gods fight in vain.

The commission reports in closing that "notwithstanding the haste with which the nation entered upon the war with Spain, the resulting and almost inevitable confusion in bureau and camp, the many difficulties of arming, assembling and transporting large bodies of hitherto untrained men, the carrying on of active operations in two hemispheres, the people of the United States should ever be proud of their soldiers, who, coöperating with their sailors, in less than three months put an end to Spanish colonial power enfranchised oppressed peoples, and taught the world at large the strength and nobility of the republic."

There was taken in the investigation of the varieties of beef prepared with a view of preservation, statements that increased the public feeling about the wrong done soldiers in supplying them with food that was unwholesome. In handling the subject there were introduced remarks supposed to be humorous, to the effect that the regular soldiers were so accustomed to imperfections in rations that their stomachs were prepared for anything, and there were jocose imputations that the volunteers would, as they became veterans, cease to strive against the diet demanded by the "paper work" that is obstructive and establishes conditions of famine in a land of plenty and the midst of abundance. The complaints of soldiers that were not fairly dealt with were very often put in this effective way: "We know that Uncle Sam pays for the things we ought to have, but that there is a way of getting the freight cars on the side track as at Tampa, and sailing away without the necessaries of life.' There will sometime be traced to the investigation of the conduct of the War Department in war, and the report of the commission, the existence of laws. and regulations promoting the welfare of our citizens who bear arms for the country. The commission does not state along with the notice of the use of canned beef in Alaska, commended on the authority of General Miles, notice of the decisive distinction between the arctic and the tropical climates. It is to be remembered there is no great care necessary for the preservation of meat in Alaska. There is no trouble about refrigeration. The northern end of the earth is extremely frozen. It is different in the Indies. It has come to pass that the word "experiment" as applied to keeping meat fresh is a terror. What "experiment" with the meat of the boys in blue, white or yellow! One might as well "experiment with the bread and butter

of the people!" However, experiments relate closely to experience, and the lamps by which wise men find the paths of safety and keep in them are those that have been tried, that is, experimented with. The canned meats that were good in Old England and New England, excellent on the European continent, were "unfit" in our new possessions of the tropics. The fresh meat in Porto Rico-the island abounds in cattle-was complained of because it was "too fresh.' It had to be eaten almost as soon as the life was out of the carcasses, or not at all, for there was no way of cooling it. General Miles could not take refrigerator cars along with him. In a few hours after the butcher had pursued his profession the fresh meat was spoiled. The way the flies pitched upon it to deposit their eggs was something surprising. There were "experiments with beef"-awful as it appears in the newspapers, the fact is substantially undeniable-to cure it so that it would be "fit" for seventy hours. That was all claimed for the stuff that at the end of twenty-four hours had to be turned into the sea. The War Department did not order it. General Egan reported against it. If General Miles got a whiff of it the fact is without official celebration, or any sort of good and regular standing. It is not surprising that there was general confidence in the canned meat of well-known brands, but that failed fast under the tropical test. The notorious investigations into the processes in this country of canning meats will ultimately have a favorable influence in marketing them, for there will be no experiments of preservation untried, and American manufacturers will rise to the occasion in the canning of meats and vegetables good in all climates. The people of the tropics have the advantage over us in their habits of nourishing themselves. They are but light consumers of meat, and a portion of rice, well set up with garlic and pepper, and a banana, is a satisfactory ration. The Cubans and Filipinos want "hot stuff" rather than "heavy" stuff, and do not find out that there is a kind of both hot and heavy food. Americans in the tropics have much to learn in the accommodation of themselves to the conditions of the country so as to be comfortable. The thing is not to abandon the use of meat, but to reduce the quantity of it consumed. One reason for this is the trouble in preservation of fresh meat. If there is ever found a deep and healthful solution of the problem it must be done by Americans. The beef scandals and conundrums, and the whole long list of our recorded trials that were made sore by grievous errors that ought to have been avoidable, and provoking incapacities-putting our armies into the field and failing to provide for

them before going or to help them there, as should have been done on behalf of a great, liberal and loving people-surely that which has been revealed will have the respectful attention of the people and of the Congress, and substantially that which is demanded by the distinguished commission will be done. The army, regular or volunteer, is of the blood, brain and bone of the people, and is for the people.

The Occupation of Our New Possessions.

The Spanish Peninsula too Narrow to Sustain the Crown System Over Continental ColoniesThe Loss of Her Archipelagoes Has Been the Logic of Her Experiences-Comparative Expansion of England and the United States-Our Magnificent Growth across the Continent the Greatest of National Triumphs-Our Arms Around the World-Our Bugle Call and British Drum-Beats, Following the Course of the Sun-The Whispering Wires that Unite the Nations-The Malay Revolt Against Liberty for Tyranny-The Ghastly Demagogy that Meddles with the Army-Pleasing Prospects of Our Possessions Except the Philippines-The Aguinaldo Conspiracy and Tagalo War-The Motives and Malice of It-American Arms without Stain-Our Soldiers without Reproach.

The logic of the war with Spain was that we should possess her American colonies and, of course, occupy them. She had ceased for a generation to hold continental land, outside the western peninsula of Europe, so long contested by the great tribes of adventurous nations, of the earliest periods of which there are histories. The Carthaginians, Romans, Goths, and Moors successively were masters of the extraordinary resources of the country, with a charming climate and fertile valleys, mountains rich in minerals, rivers. romantic in story and name, that became the home of one of the most enterprising and dominating races of men. The tragedies of Spain for two thousand years have exceeded even those of Italy. There came to her through Columbus the greatest of new possessions that ever were grasped by any people, the immeasurably endowed Americas. Columbus died neglected and poor, for the greed of the crown of Spain, through the viceroys and their rapacious followers, did not spare the illustrious discoverer or the inoffensive races that were to have been converted to Christianity, but were slaughtered by taskmasters. The American colonies poured wealth into the Peninsula, but the system of governing by the Crown, so that neither the people of Spain nor the natives of the new land they occupied, had rights that were respected, gave up the priceless fortunes conquered or inherited, to favorites of the administrators of the affairs of the kingdom, and their cruelty and profligacy

prepared the way for the horrible wars that established the independence of the Spanish American States; and Spain ultimately gave far more in gold and blood for the lands she ruled beyond her borders than she gained by her mastery of the most opulent portions of the earth. Before we of the United States became greatly interested in the decline of Spain and began to feel that we had duties and destinies involved in the final break-up of her pretensions of dominion and power, the American continents were freed from her rule, and her only hold upon the mainland beyond her boundaries between the Pyrenees and the Atlantic was a penal colony upon the African shore, near Gibraltar. She still held several archipelagoes, the Balearic, Canary, Philippine, Caroline and Ladrone islands, Cuba and Porto Rico.

If the war had lasted another hundred days, the Americans would have taken all the Spanish islands, those European and African as well as American and Asiatic. The beautiful groups in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, off the coast of Africa, would have been possessions for our people, stripping Spain down to the bones of the old Peninsula. The fate of the Spanish colo. nies is not quotable as an example for nations holding lands abroad, for it is not to be assumed that any of them, the United States least of all, would in a system of administration exclude the people, both at home and abroad, from all rights the officials of the government and their classified assistants need regard. Spain of old was too narrow a basis, both in land and people, to support a colonial expansion that included continents. The wonder is that this pyramid on its apex stood so long. If we had confined our republic to the Atlantic tide-water region, from South Carolina to Massachusetts, and had undertaken to colonize Africa and Australia, the popular contention might well have been that we were attempting a task beyond our strength. We have done a greater work of expansion that any other nation has accomplished -in our increase from the original thirteen colonies of England to the republic that does what no other power can boast-occupies the whole breadth of the American continent between the greater oceans of the globe. If there are exceptions, we name Mexico and Canada, and they hardly, extensive and respectable as they are, can be classed with us. We have also the entire northern line of the central sea of the Americas; and the further we have moved west, the more rapid our growth has been north and south. There has for some years been a feeling among our people who believe themselves conservative that we were hasty in the admission of territories as states,