, 1890-11-20
ARMY OF THE UNION
Annual Report of Secretary
Proctor.
OUR DEFENSELESS COASTS
Desertions Deoreasing--The Signal
Corps-Military Posts--Na-
tional Guard-Eto.


report to the president, Secretary of Wa
Proctor reviews the legislation of thu
present congress affecting the army. H'
pronounces the lineal promotion act on'
eminently just to officers. He also np
proves the act providing for eNamlna
ton for promotion for all officers below
the rank of major, and believes that 1t;
tendency will be TO increase tho zeal ano
industry of young officers. Tho ncN
law makes no change in the rule of pro
motion by seniority and the examina-
tions are in no sense competitive. bu,
they do require an officer to show affirm
atively his fitness for the advancement
to which, if qualified, the law entitle:
him.
On the subject of coast dcfenses the
secretary says;
1t has been our traditional policy from
the first to avoid entangling alliances.
We are separated by an ocean
from tho powers which maintain great
armies. The military resources of tho
nation havo been SO recently demon
strated, and its network of railways is so
adapted TO a rapid concentration oi
troops on any threatened point, that no
hostile force Is likely to seek an en-
counter with us on our own soil. A
small army sent upon our shores could
not hopo for success; 1t Is not probable
that any largo one will incur the risk.
We have, therefore, little to fear from
invasion, and are free from the necessity
of maintaining large standing armies
or of fortiiying against land attacks.
Aft,t. l,,,.. l. 81
exposed to an attack from the sea. So
long rs an enemy can reach vulnerable
points without exposing himself to our
land forces he may inhict blows which
we are unable to parry, and which may
cause losses i'll to be endured. No great
civilized nation to-day has more just
cause than ours to look well to the con.
dtion of its coast defenses, and none,
since the civil war, has so wholly neg
lected them. ltis a matter OF congratu-
lation that this national deficiency is
beginning to excite the attention 1t
merits, especially as time, even more
than money, Is necessary for its proper
prepare ton.
A modern land battery constitutes a
permanent defense upon a battlefield,
chosen in advance, where no thanking Is
his way or abandon the attack. In such
contest ships of war are placed under
every disadvantage. The channel is Sc
lected where their deployment Is diff
cult, while they are at the center of
ire from many dispensing
guns. Modern inventions in the use OF
electricity, high explosives, and In rihed
mortars, have resulted strongly in favor
of the comparative resisting strength of
a 70 atra
fhey can not be blown up by dynamite
nor sunk by vertical fire. They can sup
port any weight of armament, and can
protect themselves by any weight OF
earth or stone or iron. For accurate aim
they have the solid earth for n founda-
tion. They also have the cooperative
aid of our own navy, of torpedocs, and
submarine mines, and other accessory
means of defense. When our principal
cities, our harbors and our navy-yards
are thus protected, then our coasts will
be safe, aud Our navy and our increasing
commerce will have safe ports of refuge,
where they can be repaired, recoaled, and
reiitted.
The efficiency of land defenses is no
experiment, IL was the former wise
policy OF the government. previous to
the civil war to maintain coast fortih-
cations entirely competent to resist the
vessels of war of that period. They are
the cheapest to build; they are the
cheapest to maintain; they arc always
in position and ready Tor service. A
modern land battery when once con-
structed and armed needs few repairs
and no renewals. Outlnys Tor coast de
fense arc investments which yield largo
interest in the form oil insurance, with
little deterioration to principal. AS the
sole object of harbor iortiiications is de
fensc. its construction should ut least
keep pace with, IL not precede, every
other pre- paration; for it las been well
said that while we may afford to be de.
ticient in means of ofiense, We can not
afford to be dcienseless.'
NORTHERN FRONTIER.
BY our agreement of 1917 with Great
Britain each party is restricted to q
single armed vessel on Lakes Ontario
and Champlain and two on the upper
lakes. Since then the great West has
become an empire OF production and
with its great cities, centcrs
of wealth, com merce, and transporta-
tion, built on the straight shores of the
broad lakes and defenseless against
naval attack. Tho Welland canal and
the six canals along the St. Lawrence
between Lake Ontario and Montreal
have been constructed and are wholly in
foreign territory. The smallest of the
ST. Lawrence canals have nine feet
depth of water and locks 200 feet long
and forty-tive feet wide, sufficient for
the passage OF over fifty of the armed
vessels of the British navy. Measures
have already been commenced to enlarge
the smaller canals so that none will have
less than fourteen feet depth OF water,
" whirh would ndmlL the pnsguNn nf n
many more of a heavier aramment. One
of these canals the Beauharnois,
eleven and one-quarter miles long, is
wholly on the right (south) bank of the
st. Lawrence. Another, is within rifle
shot of islands belonging to us. The
board Of Notifications and other defenses
under the act OF March 3, lSS5. com
posed of army and navy officers and of
civilians, of which my predecessor was
president, made q full and very able re-
port in regard to this situation. and rec
considerable works of de.
tense for the lake ports.
In the absence OF any preparation on
our part tho lake cities might in tho
event of war with the power holding the
highway OF the st. Lawrence. be in q
more defenseless condition even than
tho sea. board cities Although We can
not, under the agreement, build armed
vessels ON the lakes, TO overmatch on
those waters the force that might DO
to undertake any elaborate
system of deienses as proposed.
DgsERrIoNs.
Tho number of desertions from the
army for the twelve months ending
September 80 were 2os6 as against 2, 75I
for the same period last year n decrease