Big Navy May Create As Well As Prevent Trouble

There seems to be a gradually intensifying desire on the part of many people in the country to know exactly what it was that happened to Mr. Magelssen, our vice consul to Beirut. Thus far not a morsel of information has been vouch-safed from any quarter. Our fleet was ordered to the Syrian port on the strength of a report by Minister Leishman, at Constantinople, to the effect that Mr. Magelseen had been assassinated. Admiral Cotton reached Beirut some days later, only to find that Magelssen was alive and well. It has transpired, moreover, that, up to the time the assassination roorback was sent by Minister Leishman, there had been no hostile demonstrations by the Mohammedan population of the city or its immediate neighborhood. There have been some since, we are told, but that is intelligible enough. We all know what would occur in any of our seaport towns were a foreign government to send a blustering fleet there on a false report, and without stopping to ask for explanations. What bothers folk, however, is the fact that after all this time not a single ray of light has been shed upon the mystery. Here we are jumping on the collar of a nation with which we are supposed to be on amicable terms, yet no one seems to know why the demonstration was made, still less why it is persited in. There seems to be a "hen on" some place, but no man can locate it.

You can cut the silence of the administration with a knife at this time, but there was no hesitation, no statecraft, no deep, dark, wily reticence when it came to giving out "news" of the assassination, or making public the prompt and vigorous action of the government in ordering the fleet to the scene of this tragedy in buckram. Can it be possible that our administration of the government is garrulous for effect upon the public mind, and that it becomes majestically reserved only when there are blunders to conceal? Think it over.

There is no question but that the people of this nation desire that our citizens be protected everywhere in all their proper rights, but they do not believe our big navy should be used for any but legitimate purposes. To say the least, the sending of Admiral Cotton's squadron to Beirut was over-hasty and it would never have been sent had a second thought been taken, for ti was promptly discovered on second reading of the dispatch that some one had blundered in the translation. A navy is unquestionably believed in by pretty nearly all of our people, but they do not want it used for bullying purposes or to manufacture trouble. 

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The heaviest tax levy in the history of the state is in this year of grace 1903. It is more than $4,000,000. in 1902 Washtenaw's tax levy was $62,599.27. This year it is $93,854.58. The total increase in the state over 1902 is $1,333,081.17. If all this increase was in the interest of better government, the people would have no cause to complain, perhaps, but this can scarcely be claimed. However, the people appear to be pretty well satisfied with the extravagant state regime.