Omaha daily bee., 1883-06-01
Army Scandals.

The United States has the largest
military resources of any nation on
the globe ana very nearly the smallest
military establishment. If we choose
to put our strength to the work, we
might, at ar expense of about twice aa
great as the sum spent on pensions
and III army together and which no
n feels, raise an army as large
as France and Germany com
blned and greatly superior to both In
Its personnel. This is our dormant
military strength. Our active military
force is barely o~ne.fortieth that Of
France and Germany.
Uader these circumstances every
thinking man knows that what little
army we have should be of the best In
men, material and morals. If 1t Is
not, we must build from the bottom
whsn war comes and In any civilized
contests u defeats In the first year
must equal the cost of a large military
establishment for a decade, and may
be disastrous. The scandals Of the
last six months force home
the fact that the morale of our army
is very seriously impaired. This Is
serious, because the other needs were
known to be wanting. Our rank and
file desert Wholesale; the training
of our officers at West Point Is anti
quated; the drill and regimental tao.
Tics of our army has not been changed
to meet the dangers of new arms of
precision; our staff corps gathered OF
Washington to do little or no military
study, and training In scientific war.
fare under Its new conditions is seri-
ously lacking among our young off
GERS. These are all hard facts, OF
which every student of our army Ia
painfully aware. 1t is one Of our
national misfortunes that our little
army has at Its head, In G neral Sher.
man great military genius who doe,
not believe In book soldiers, and that
his successor Is q brilliant cavalry SOL
dier of much the came way of think.
Ing.
The result of this is that, with
men of the best sort In our army,
neither Its traditions nor Its Influences
lead to hard work on military sub
sets. Hard work Ia done. Our sig.
nal service is made up of trained
meteorologists, u%nequalled anywhere,
and our army engineers devote their
lives to the study of every branch OF
their profession except military en-.
cheering. The able mon who make
up that corps come, In the nature OF
things, to be chiefly interested In the
work they chiefly do, and their
best years are given to gov.
eminent improvements. The
other staff departments discharge
patiently and we'll their regular work
but In not one of them Is any prepare.
tion made for an extraordinary ex-
igency. We stand In this respect ex.
sctly where we stood In 1861. Our
reliance, under these circumstances,
must be In the morale of our off GERS.
Their high character and stainless
honor, Joined to the fighting qualities
of @ a Q which, In a thousand years,
has never known q rout or surrendered
an army, save In civil war to
an English. speaklng foe, might be
trusted to carry us through war.
Profound regret must be felt tina
this reliance Is weakened by recent
army scandals. The sore of our ser.
Vice Is still sound. AS long as men
like Terry and Crook, and the line
officers who serve In the west and
elsewhere arc In our army, Its high
standard cannot be wholly Lost; but
the dominant group In our service,
the cluster OF line and staff Off cers In
the east, whose family and political
influence enables them to figure at the
front as our ceremonial army, seems
speckled with rotten spots. Ilges,
Wasson, Morrow and Nickerson make
q cad record; but these might DO &C
cepted as exceptional If they were not
all marked with the same characters.
tics of a corrupt, absolute and idle
life, which has come to be part of the
army atmosphere at Washington.
Add to this the scandal involved In
General Hazen's being left untried,
and the lesser cases In which o~ficers
with a spotted reputation are left In
the service, aud the prospect Is ssri.
GUS.
Fortunately In Secretary Lincoln
the country has a sound, sensible
head of the war department, who has
shown In dealing with army problems
a high purpose and strong common
sense, which ought to be able at least
to begin . reform.