Announcement

With this issue the "ïpsilanti Weekly Times as consolidat-eö with the Ann Arbar Kemocrat, 'making it the most widely circulated English newspaper in "Washtenaw county. Those subscritoers of The Weekly Times who have paid in advance will be furnished The Democrat without extra charge until the expiration oí their subscription. The subseription to The Democrat is one dollar .per year, while that to TJie Times has been fifty cents. The Democrat has during the past year conducted a large Ypsilanti department and the Ypsilanti subscribers to The Weekly Times will obtain all of their home news and secure in addition the best county newspaper published in southern Michigan. The attention of advertisers is invited lo the .fact that with the six hundred subscribers of The Weekly Times in Ypsilanti and vicinity and the .2,100 subscribers of The Democrat, we now have a total circulation of 2,700 cover.ing Washtenaw county thoroughly and making it the most profitable advertising medium obtainable. This year of all times our citizens should turn out and observe Memorial day. No gr.eater lesson of patriotism can be taught the present generation than tribute to the memories of those who died that their country might live. A seheme of customs tariff is now being prepared for the Philippine Islands. It is thought ihat $18,000,000 will in this way be turned into the treasury of the United States as a "military contribuiion." Uncle Sam, it is quite evident, Js ready to transact business in a business way at nis new stand. Dispatch.es from Kingston are to the effect that England has placed eighteen months' supplies at Jamaica. The Chronicle, commenting upon the situation, asks if England is going to take a hand in the Hispano-American war. The report írom Liverpool that France is trying to buy the Canaries for $30,000,000 has renewed the talk of alliance between France and Spain and caused a rise in Spanish 4's. A Washington dispatch says that the Michigan regiment Jeft its Springfield rifles at home, expecting to receive Krag-Jorgensens at Tampa, but it is not likely that it will get them. The Georgia regiment is still uniformed in gray, so far as it is uniformed at all. The Georgia and Michigan men are side by side in camp and fraternize admirably. They and two Ohio regiments will be brigaded together, an arrangement which seems highly pleasing to them all." T.he Army and Navy Journal says editorially: "If W. T. Sampson and Winfleld Seott Schley are not competent to command let them be relieved without further delay and other offlcers assigned to command their fleets. If they are competent they should be given full liberty of action without interference from war boards or paper strategists. "If the gentlemen who assurne direction from Washington are more competent, put them in command of the fleets and. place the responsibility on them. "Admiral Dewey has shown what can be accomplished by bold and independent action. Does any one believe that he could have accomplished what lie has if he had been at the end of a wire running into the navy departraent?" The policy of Spain is delay, not aggression. Outside the theaters and other places of resort where the stupid brags of the so-called comic press of Spain are taken for gospel, probably no one In Spain expects the vessels ent here to make an offensive movement against the United States. The fate of the Armada of three hundred years ago is not forgotten, and the odds are greater at both ends of the proposition now. The United States is more powerful than England was under' Elizabeth, and Spain is not half so powerful as then, and the field of action is farther away from Spain than the scène of the woful attempt to capture the "tight little island." The Chicago Times-Herald urges the house of representativas to pass the currency reform bill before adjournment. The house can do nothing which will advance the cause of the Democracy more than the passage of that iniquitous measure. The Pontiac Post publishes as a mati. óf news that the battleship Hazen Ö. Pingree is stripped for action. This s;jtement is misleading. This craft is always strippsd for action. It has been cruising in Michigan waters for ten . and has been ready for action at any moment during that time. We Americans are possessed of that cement which will keep us united - education. Such scènes as are being enacted in Spain, could not occur in our land. Spain is an ignorant nation; a war will bring her dissension at home and her colonies abroad. Our just war against Spain bands us together like brothers, and education is the true ageney. There is distress where íarge standing armies are maintained, but there is also distress where the standing armies are nominal; there is distress where' protective tariffs stupidly and wastefully hamper trade, but there is also distress where trade is nearly f ree; there is distress where autocratie government yet prevails, but there is also distress where political power is wholly in the hands of the people; in countries where is money, and in countries where gold and silver are the only currency. Evidently, beneath all such things as these, we must infer a common cause. - Henry George. There is one Republican who is opposed to the annexation of Hawaii, and that Republican - unfortunately for the annexation promoters - happens to be Czar Reed. Notwithstanding the pressure brought to bear upon him by members of the foreign affairs committee and other members of his party, he has not budged an inch from his position, and will not so until it has been demonstrated to his satisfaction that his party is in favor of the action they are seeking to have taken. He wants some tangible evidence that there is a majority in favor of the resolution, and a poll of the house is now being taken which will undoubtedly substantiate the claims of the Republicans, who have been urging the speaker to recede from his position. Senator Campbell needs no accuser to make him feel his guilt in refusing to vote in compliance with the wishes of the people cf his district. While the senator is riding around the country on a 'pass of the Michigan Central railroad, his constituents, the people of Washtenaw and Jackson counties, will continue to pay the taxes of this railroad company as well as all the other railroad companies of Michigan. Just watch him, skulking around with averted eyes, and you will be convinced that he is conscious of his wrongdoing. Fourteen of the sixteen senators, who voted to retain the entire burden of taxation upon the people and for freedom of taxation of "nonresidents" bond-holders, are Republicans and only two were Democrats. This shows where the corruption lies. It is ever thus with any powerful party and it will continue to be so in this state until the people of the Republican party arise in their might and depose their corrupt leaders, or turn in and depose the party. - Neue Washtenaw Post. Recruiting the volunteer army at Tampa appears to proceed slowly. Adjutant General Corbin estimates that only about 110,000 men have been mustered in. The work of organizing and equipping those ready for service is being pushed vigorously, and the war department hopes to have an army of 100,000 fairly well provided for an emergency two weeks henee. No_ date for the invasión of Cuba has been fixed, for that will depend on the development of events, which may hasten or retard it. General Miles does not encourage the reckless ehthusiasts, who insist a start will be made this week. "The men show the thinning effect of the plain diet," writes a correspondent. "They have lost from five to eight pounds each during the month they have been under arms. The everlasting round of beans, bacon and hard tack is getting unbearable, and there is no appeal. The men who are inclined to find fault remember the grim incident touching three companies of Colonel Fred Grant's regiment, who refused to appear on the drill field unless the food was changed for the next breakfast. Colonel Grant rode over to Colonel Pugh, a sturdy Massachusetts veteran, who was temporarily in command of the brigade. The colonel reported that he feared three companies in his command were going to mutiny and refuse to do the daily work. "Colonel Pugh refused to show the least excitement, and with absolute incUfference told Colonel Grant to return to his obstreperous men, with the information that mutiny meant death. He promised that in case the three companies did not learn during the night that they were in the very rigid business of being United States soldiers he would have them all stood up at sunrise and shot. "There was no mutiny, and for the first time the New York National Guard realized it was really in the volunteer army, where $1 a day for rations ó very much againet the rule.