call for 125,000 volunteers;1 and two days later Congress passed an act declaring that a state of war had existed since April 21 between the United States and the Kingdom of Spain."

The organization of the army and navy for actual service. began at once. The President, in consultation with the Secretaries of War and the Navy and other military experts, completed the selection of the commanding officers.3 Troops were concentrated at southern ports, preparatory to their transportation to Cuba, and the commissary-general, acting through his agents in the great cities, began to purchase supplies and rush them to the points where the troops were being mobilized. Of course, some of this work had been done in advance; the regular army had been concentrated in southern camps and overhauled in anticipation of the war and provision had been made in the War Department for the selection of officers.

There were, however, great confusion, waste, and mismanagement in the preparation for the war and in equipping and transporting the soldiers. Indeed, the loss during the Spanish War was not on the field of battle, but in the camps, where the soldiers were poorly cared for and badly fed. Our experience on this occasion was, in fact, the chief cause of the reform which followed this war.

While the troops were being organized and prepared for war, Congress was busy with revenue measures to meet the new charges. It at once appropriated $50,000,000 and empowered the President, without restriction, to use the entire amount for national defence. Later on, June 13, an issue of $200,000,000 worth of three per cent bonds was authorized. The tax on tobacco and fermented liquors was greatly increased; "special taxes were laid upon banks, brokers, proprietors of theatres, bowling alleys, billiard and pool rooms, and amusement places in general. Stamp taxes were imposed upon a great variety of commercial transactions involving the use of documents, as the issue or sale of incorporation securities; upon bank checks, bills of exchange, drafts, etc.; upon express and freight receipts; telephone and telegraph messages, insurance policies, and many other business operations in daily use. Duties collected through the

1 Readings, p. 310.

2 Ibid., p. 310.

* Senators Hanna and Jones, as chairmen of the national committees of the two great political parties, exercised great weight in the selection of officers.

use of stamps were laid upon patent and proprietary medicines and toilet articles, chewing gum, and wines; and an excise tax was imposed upon firms engaged in refining sugar or petroleum. A novelty in federal finance was a tax on legacies ranging from three-quarters of one per cent on direct heirs to five per cent on distant relatives and strangers, with a progressive increase in the rates as the estates increased in size, to a maximum of fifteen per cent." 1

The actual direction of war is obviously difficult to describe. The power of direction is, of course, vested in the President; but the extent to which he may use it to control not only the general but the minute movements of the army and navy depends upon many things: the character of the theatre of war, the facility of communication, the confidence of the President in his own military ability, and the regard which he has for the abilities of the officers immediately under his command. He could, of course, take the field himself if he saw fit.

During the Spanish-American War, President McKinley, the Secretary of War, and the Secretary of the Navy sat together in what is known as the War Room at the White House, which was connected with the scenes of action by the most modern means of communication; and from time to time they sent out general instructions, and detailed orders to commanding officers.2

We may say, therefore, that the President and his immediate advisers in Washington sketch the general plans of campaign; supervise their execution; make changes and issue new directions from time to time, always coöperating with the officers at the front, trusting more or less to their use of discretion amid the exigencies of battle. Under the law establishing the General Staff, described above, the President will now have the advice of an expert body closely in touch with the army and at the same time initiated in the practical problems of civil administration connected with the actual employment of the army.

3

The Rights of Citizens in Time of War

The rights of the enemy in time of war are deduced, of course, from the principles of international law; but the rights of Ameri1 Dewey, Financial History of the United States, p. 466.

See Readings, p. 313.

3 For actual illustrations, see Readings, pp. 315 ff.

can citizens must be determined according to the Constitution of the United States. During the Civil War a serious problem arose as to the extent of the power of the President as commander-inchief over the persons and property of American citizens, not only near the seat of war, but even at a great distance. Has the President the right to arrest citizens in loyal states on the charge of giving aid or comfort to the enemy of the United States? Can he suspend, without the sanction of Congress, the writ of habeas corpus as to persons under military arrest, thus preventing them from carrying their cases into the ordinary civil tribunals? Are persons so held under military arrest entitled to jury trial? These and many similar questions were raised, and bitter feeling was manifested against President Lincoln, in many quarters, for what was regarded as high-handed and arbitrary action in arresting, by military force, large numbers of men throughout the North who were suspected of giving aid and encouragement to the Confederacy.

To those who complained against this policy, President Lincoln responded: "Thoroughly imbued with a reverence for the guaranteed rights of individuals, I was slow to adopt the strong measures which by degrees I have been forced to regard as being within the exceptions of the Constitution and as indispensable to the public safety. Nothing is better known to history than that courts of justice are utterly incompetent to such cases. Civil courts are organized chiefly for trials of individuals, or at most a few individuals acting in concert and this in quiet

times and on charges of crimes well defined in the law. . . . He who dissuades one man from volunteering, or induces one soldier to desert, weakens the Union cause as much as he who kills a Union soldier in battle. Yet this dissuasion or inducement may be so conducted as to be no defined crime of which any civil court would take cognizance.” 1

The question as to the extent of the President's war power over American citizens was brought before the Supreme Court in the case of Ex parte Milligan,2 and it was held that, in time of civil war when courts are actually closed by foreign invasion and it is impossible to administer criminal justice according to law, the military authority has the right to rule by martial law until the

1 Nicolay and Hay, Complete Works of A. Lincoln, Vol. VIII, pp. 303, 309. 24 Wallace, 2.

laws can have their free course again. But, continued the Court, as the necessity creates the rule, so it limits the duration martial rule can never be maintained where the courts are open and in the proper and undisturbed exercise of their jurisdiction, and it is confined to the locality of actual war. The doctrine thus announced by the Court is largely an academic one, for the President, having possession of the military power, can readily close the courts in any district and thus disturb "the free course of law"; and as a matter of fact, in time of war, a practically absolute power must be vested in the commander-in-chief.

The Pension System

No country in the world has been more liberal in the provision of pensions for soldiers and sailors and those dependent upon them than the United States. A pension system was established as early as 1776. Following every war there is a new pension law, or rather a series of pension laws, making provision for those who have served their country; and payments for previous services are constantly being made more liberal. In 1905, the roll of pensioners reached 1,004,196, the largest in the history of our country; and on June 30, 1908, the number stood at 951,867. By the act of March 4, 1907, Congress appropriated $145,000,000 for pensions, and this was supplemented about a year later by a deficiency appropriation of $10,000,000 more. The total amount actually disbursed in pensions for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1908, was over $153,000,000.

It is not only the soldiers who have seen actual service that are pensioned. Many widows, children under the age of sixteen years, and helpless minors are provided for, and state and national homes are established for the disabled and indigent. It was not until November 11, 1906, that the last surviving widow pensioner of the Revolutionary War died and two daughters of soldiers in that war were still on the roll in 1908. The last pensioned soldier of the War of 1812 died in 1905, but the roll of that war still contains over 400 widows. On June 30, 1908, there were 620,985 survivors of the Civil War on the pension roll.

The administration of the pensions is in charge of a commissioner in the Department of the Interior.

The Cost of War1

There is a strong tradition in the United States that we are preeminently a peaceful people giving little attention to warlike preparations; and we generally point with pity to the nations of Europe staggering under their enormous military burdens. It is interesting to note, however, that on comparing the total receipts of Great Britain, Germany, France, and the United States with their total expenditures for the maintenance of military establishments there is relatively little difference. During the fiscal year 1908, the United States spent for army, navy, and fortifications no less than $204,122,855.57, or 36.5 per cent of the total revenue, exclusive of postal receipts (because the revenues and expenditures in that department constitute a balanced account). During the same year also we spent $180,678,204, or about 31 per cent of our total revenue for pensions, interest,3 and other charges incurred by past wars. Taking the daily statement issued by the Treasury Department on April 30, 1909, we find an expenditure of 41 per cent of all the revenues of the fiscal year up to that day for the army, navy, and fortifications- that is, in preparation for war and 31 per cent of all the revenue on account of past wars, making a total expenditure of 72 per cent of all the federal revenues thus collected, either on account of past wars or in preparation for war.

"The fact," exclaims Mr. Tawney, chairman of the committee of appropriations in the House, "that we are expending, during this fiscal year, 72 per cent of our aggregate revenue in preparing for war and on account of past wars, leaving only 28 per cent of our revenue available to meet all other governmental expenditures, including internal improvements, the erection of public buildings, the improvement of rivers and harbors, and the conservation of our natural resources, is to my mind appalling. It should arrest the attention of the American people and not only cause them to demand a decrease in these unnecessary war expenditures, but also prompt them to aid in every way possible in the creation of a public sentiment that would favor the organization of an international federation whose decisions and action in the

For the American theory of national defence, Readings, p. 320. For the modern peace movement, above, p. 339.

2

Congressional Record, Vol. XL, part 8, p. 7928; Reinsch, Readings, p. 313. * On the war debt.