March 1, 1904
REPRESENTATIVE SMITH INTRODUCES A BILL TO THAT END
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Asks for $60,000 for This Purpose and Sets Forth the Many Reasons and Advantages That Would Come of the Enlargement.
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When the Hon. W.R. Smith, congressman for the El Paso district, announced for the nomination, one of the strongest planks in his platform was that which dealt with his favoring the enlargement of Fort Bliss, and it was probably this more than anything else that endeared him to the people of El Paso. This pledge to the people was reiterated by Mr. Smith in an interview with a Times reporter after his election, when in El Paso last fall, just before he left to take up his duties in the national capital as the representative of his constituents.
True to his promise, now he comes forward and the other day introduced a bill in congress asking for an appropriation of $60,000 for the purpose of providing suitable accommodations at Fort Bliss as headquarters for two battalions (eight companies) of infantry, two troops of cavalry and one battery of field artillery.
As a prelude to his bill, Mr. Smith sets forth the unsurpassed natural advantages of El Paso for a post and for a headquarters. He points out its unexcelled climate, showing that it was a cure for the climate-fagged soldiers returning from the Philippines, where they had contracted malarial fevers and showing that they quickly recover and recuperate in this high, dry climate, where these complaints are unknown. He points out the government sanitariums at Fort Bayard and Fort Stanton, the climate of which is identical with El Paso.
He points out the nine great railroads which branch out from El Paso in every direction, thus securing for soldiers stationed here ready accessibility from any direction that they might be needed quickly, and shows that the enlargement of Fort Bliss would be but a compliance with the recommendation made by General Fred Grant when he was commander of the department of Texas, that the army posts along the Mexican border should be enlarged and extended. This recommendation was not made through any fear of hostilities with Mexico or through any ill feeling toward that country, but only as a pursuance of a policy indulged in by all nations in making its frontier posts the largest and strongest.
What the enlargement of Fort Bliss will mean to El Paso is inconceivable and what benefits will be derived from the enlargement can best be seen by what the present small number means for the city.
Mr. Smith is keeping his faith with his constituents and his worthy effort is due the commendation of those constituents. By a co-operation on their part in every possible way to secure a successful issue of the bill.
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