Arizona weekly enterprise., 1882-09-23
The English and the American Army
 Svs+ern

Archibald Forbes, England's S war cor respondent, has been inspired by the lack of garrisons in the United States and the display of the military head quarters at Washington, to write an ar ticle for the North American ReUielU on 'sThe United States Army" which is more & comparison of the methods of American and English army discipline and of life than anything else. The two nations, he takes it, are alone in holding to the idea of professional in contradistinction to national army, and in confining their armies to defen- sive and police work, as against aggres- sion or reprisals directed against an enemy; but here all similarity ceases.- MT. Forbes finds the widest difference in the treatment of English and Ameri- can soldier-offenders in that the Eng fish punitive system is harsh and de- grading, while the American military prison is a paradise compared with ths ordinary quarters of the American gar rison out West. The English soldier who ofends is condemned to ostenta- tiously useless labor, his head is cropped, he is hampered by complicated code, the slightest transgression of whose slightest rule adds to his punishment, and no good conduct ever avails to the mitigation of his punishment. The American, on the contrary, is treated not as criminal, but as being suffering under temporary craziness, is we'll fed; allowed large measure of personal freedom, is put to the learning of some useful trade, and at the end of his sen- tence is supplied with money and cloth ing and returned at public expense to the place of his enlistment. Two other points of comparison are the pay of the two forces and the chances of promotion from the ranks. Where the British pri- vate has nominal shilling day, aeE companied by ration of three-fourths Of pound of meat and one pound of bread, he finds that his American brother receives from $13 to S16 month from the first to the fifth years of service, together with the 'sstartling'' daily ration of 12 ounces of pork or bacon, II pounds of beef. IS ounces of soft bread, l pound of hard bread, II pounds of meal, besides ample quanti- ties of peas. rice, coffee, sugar, candles and other necessaries of life, added to which is a government allotment of land at the expiration of his service. Out of the 432 officers of the American cavalry service, 11S are graduates from the file, ranking as high as Lieutenant Colonel, prospect not to be counted among the possibilities of the English common sol- dier. But the great difference which Mir. Forbes finds in the two armies lies in the principles which govern enlist ment, promotion and retirement-and here the Englishman takes the opportu- nity to slap the English for the eom- piaceney with which they rub their 45sI hanfs aEeE hrnse 3s and her scientifically armed troops over q gang of jingal-bearing or assegai throw- ing sayages. The American principle, he says, is that the army shall be con ducted as business by business meth ods; and the English idea is that the army shall be made matter of show and parade expressed by military bun- combe. While in England soldier is rewarded for doing his plain duty by a Victoria cross to balance the poverty of his pay. and commander who has lost his battle is never disgraced, but often rewarded, the American soldier has no glittering ''honor' before his eyes, but on the contrary, as in the eases of many officers of the Union army after the war, is relegated to positions inferior to those well filled by him in active service. But this business principle Mir Forbes holds to be far preferable to that inspir- ing the British service, in that it has re- suited in better pay for the soldier. in- surfing him surplus at the end of his enlistment, if frugal, and a comfortable retirementpension for the commissioned officer unthought of in England. Mir. Forbes, like a good Englishman, ab- stains from drawing any conclusions from his observations prejudicial to the English, but quietly remarks: Differ ent nations, different treatment-that is all the length care to go."