The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-11-12
MILITARY EDUCATION.


| In the number Of cadets at the military
| academy This Is a sound recommends
ton, for there are so many vacancies in
the army that large number of appoint
| ments to second lieutenancies have been
made from private life. No civilians with
out military education should be ap-
pointed to the army. Intelligent non
commissioned officers of superior natural
| ability cannot be expected to be obtained in
our regular army unless We increase the
chance to secure commission. Napoleon.
who knew human nature well, said that
his armies were deficient often in disci-
pine; were cursed with a poor commits
sariat and quarter-master's department,
but that they nevertheless marched rap
idly and fought splendid,y, because every
soldier knew that there might be mar
shal's baton in his knapsack.
There was scarcely one of Napoleon's
marshals that was not of humble birth,
and their only military school was service
in the ranks. OF all Napoleon's marshals,
Marmont, st. Cyr, Suchet and Davoust,
were the only men who were scholars
enough to write of the art of war with ability
and professional accuracy of language.
Augereau, Massena, Soult, Ney, Lannes,
Junot, Murat and Victor were all I'M
skilled in the use CT the pen; some Of
them were absolutely illiterate. Human
nature is the same today as in Napoleon's
time, and the bright, intelligent men
among the rank and file ought to have
h.ttar Oh onoa &c MON, nf;o, m IN al praseuf
With equal moral quality a non-commis-
stoned officer of tried capacity and courage
ought to be preferred to any civilian
without thorough military education for
appointment to q commission in the army.
But the social resistance to appointments
from the rank and file of the army is
strong on the part of the West Point of
fcers, and political influence will always
be used to secure civilian appointments.
Under these circumstances, the best that
can be done to increase the number of per-
sons who annually receive regular train
ing in the profession of arms would be to
increase tine number of cadets at West
Point, and to encourage instruction in
military tactics at every college in the
country by detailing army officers as in
structors. It is great pity that the whole
of so-called college athletics could not be
replaced by military training and those
athletic exercises that are naturally part
of it. Every military school would natur-
ally wish its cadets to know how to swim,
to row, to shoot, to ride, to fence and to
spar.
Military athletics develop the strength
Of the human body BEAUTIFULLY, and i'm
part to it an erect and graceful carriage,
while college athletics, like football and all
other violent exercises, are unhealthful in
the long run, because they stand for ex-
cessive, incorporate action. Health,
strength, skill, endurance and manly APP
pearance is insured by military drill and
athletics, to which is added the moral
training and mental culture of discipline,
the meaning of which no boisterous collie
gian comprehends save during the short
season that he Is in training for q match.
With an increased number of cadets at
West Point q larger number Of men would
be made educated soldiers at slight adj
ditional expense to the nation and hence a
larger source of reliance for good officers
would be assured in the case of
an outbreak of war. Of course
it should be provided that all in ex-
cess of the numbers needed In any
given year to fill vacancies should be
honorably discharged at once and not
retained as additional second neutenants.
The government would thus educate and
maintain these men for four years, giving
them the highest physical and mental
training, In itself an admirable start for
civil life, and, if not needed on gradual
| ton, they would be instantly discharged.
TO carry the impress and influence of their
military training into civil life, with a
pledge to place it. in event of war, at the
service of the governments that educated
them.
General Wallace, when a member of the
Board of Visitors at West Point, proposed
five years term of enlistment, with
courses of education like those at West
Point, under the company officer, and
selections of 800 or 500 men at the end of
the fourth year of service for transfer to
West Point. There another years in
| struction would be given, and commits
sions would be furnished to those who
should stand highest, the others being
discharged with diplomas Of merit
Those not chosen at the end of the
fourth year would be discharged at
that time.
This would be an excellent plan, as il
would give the meritorious enlisted man a
chance for a thorough military education,
q most desirable if not necessary thing, as
the conditions OF both military and naval
warfare in the future will demand higher
individual brain, intelligence and knowl-
| edge than in the past. The wooden gun
boat has given way 10 the ironclad; the
tactics OF modern warfare with the change
In the range Of firearms will compel fight
| ing with clouds of skirmishers in open or
| der rather than in massed lines of battle, a
mode of lighting that increases the re-
sponsibility Of the individual soldier, and
| subjects his individual courage, intelli-
gence, resolution, aiertness and skill to
| severer test than formerly. This giving of
a military education to larger number of
| men for possible future use would be an
economical method of reducing the neces-
| sity foT increasing the size OF the standing
army. The raw masses of our volunteers
can be quickly made soldiers if given
| plenty of company and battalion instruc-
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