New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-12-20
AUTHORIZATIONS.

The true friend Of the soldier, and the intel
ligent soldier himself, have good reason for
thanking Senator Wilson for his efforts to get
the suffers out of the army. This class of
camp followers are no less the actual than they
are the traditional pest Of armies, always the
enemy of discipline, always holding out an In
centiye to insubordination, and always tempting
the soldier to part with his pay for monentary
indulgences to his own harm and the loss OF
his family. What boarding house keepers are
TO sailors suffers are, so far as their more Limited
power goes, to soldiers. The sutler ruins his Gus
toners at an exorbitant rate, and grows rich by
stripping the poor fellows of nearly all they
possess while they are alive, as other camp
followers do of all that is left when they lie
dead on the field of battle. Mr. Wilson has
applied his vigorous common sense to this cry
ing evil, and it is to be hoped that he will
succeed in Kidding the army altogether of such
nuisance.
II may be that suffers were once q necessary
evil, but it was when armies were led and
cared.for in q very different way from the
modern method. Among the other improve
mepts of military science, the rned cannon,
the more effective weapons of all sorts, The
marvellous prcjectes, the improved transporta-
tion, the drill, the uniform, and all the ad.
uncts on which science and common sense
have shed their light, is the treatment Of the
soldier. He is no longer an implement Of war,
requiring OILY such care as is given to other
animals, whose only duty in life is to stand
fire steadily for a shilling day; but citizen,
who, when not soldier, goes to town-meet.
ngs, is, perhaps, himself town clerk, super
visor. or member of the Assembly, certainly
makes Members of Congress and Presidents,
and has bis recognized place in the world,
with wife, children, friends, and home.
Our standing army is the people, and
they hasten to the defense OF the laws
they make, of rights they comprehend, and
value, end mean TO maintain. That We all re-
cognize this changed character of the material
of an army, and the modern estimate of which
an army should be-, 9 shown in the universal
interest manifested in its physic well being.
They are brothers and sons who have gone out
to fight the countrys battles, and everywhere
there is q determination that they shnll carry
with them as much Of home as possible. Bat
the progress of reform is slow, and goes on
in spite-of official routine.
How much suffering, for instance, is and will
BIO saved because some busy brain bethought
itself Of the necessity of mittens, and because
busy fingers thereupon, the country over, went
steadily to work to make them' Yet official
authority could not order single pair, because
they were not mentioned among the military
acquisitions. In regard to suffers, the suffer
ancs is unquestioued, because it is in accord
ance with routine, as in regard to mittens 1t
was impossible to provide them, though camps
should be strewn with frozen fingers, because
they were not in the orders. 1t is in such
matters that the necessity Of legislation is
shown.
But it is not enough merely to get rid Of