The evening times., 1895-12-05
ARMY STAFF AND LINE
The Consolidation Of the Corps Is
Exciting Discussion.
The Increase of Artillery and In
famry-What the Proposed
Changes Would Cost.

The proposals of Secretary Lamont in re-
gard To the reduction and reorganization
of the staff are exciting discussion among
army officers. As he says, about one
fourth of all the Officers are assigned TO
staff duty, and nearly one-third of the
pay oroffjcers is required for them.
This last ratio is due to the. TACT that in
several of the staff departments there are
no grades below that of jor ami In Others
none below that of captain or first lieu
tenant. But the question of pay comes up,
as well as that of numbers, because the
Secretary hopes to aid his project of in
creasing the number OF line officers, AT an
expense estimated at 5000 900, by reduc-
tons which he can make in the staff.
1t does seem as il the ratio OF stair TO
line is decidedly out of proportion" as
the Secretary says. And he has given
proof that changes in duties are possible
by his new pay system, in which company
officers pay out the funds sent by eX-
press, instead of having paymasters visit
the posts.
Not only does he think the number OF
stair officers TO be excessive, but that IN
many instances their military rank Is quite
Inconsistent with the purely business runc-
tions they perform" All this is rather omi-
nous for some of the staff departments.
Those, however, that are of a strictly tech
meal character are probably In little dan
ger of an effort TO reduce them.
One argument for the staff departments
is that our army is exceptionally small in
its effective line strength. but on account
OF the territorial extent OF the ountry, ana
also the likelihood that an enormous army
would have TO be raised in case of war,
the staff fabric should be kept well organ
lied for all purposes present and prospect
i've. MIR. Lamont view. however, Is that the
present staff organization is a survival of
war times and oIt of date for existing uses.
Many years ago suggestions OF consolida.
tons were made, such as merging the Quar-.
ternlaster Generals and Subsistence De-
partneuts, and perhaps even bringing the
Pay Corps under the same general control
Again, it has been suggested that the Ad-
Jutant Generals and Inspector Generals
Departmentsmight be ecombined, the officers,
of course, taking precedence according TO
their present respective ranks, SO that the
whole force of both would be available for
the duties that at one time or another in the
year become most pressing. Mr.. Lamont
contents himself, however, with generally
outlining radical reductions and coDsoli-
dations' in the departments where purely
business functions" are found.
A special recommendation likely to excite
attention is that in all staff corps, except
the engineer, the ordnance and the medical,
whose duties are largely technical, the
chief of the corps should be chosen from
the W hole army, line as wen as staff, and
for q term of years only, after which the
officer would assume duty in his commis-
stoned grade, unless reappointed. Such
O change would affect the AdJutant e ener;ll.
the Inspect General the Judge-Ad-
vocate General. the QuartermasterGen.
eral, the Commissary-G eneral, and the Chief
Signal Officer.
The system of term of years would
4 hnr
walls with all heads of bureaus, although
reappointments are frequent. The rank
enjoyed meanwhile by the head OF the
bureau is expressly called relative rank,
and in the official Navy Gazette the names
are printed with the actually commissioned
rank. Thus the chief of the Bureau f Ord
nance is printed asCapt Sampson and not
as commodore. although the latter is his
relative rank. The plan OF Mr. Lamont is
apparently TO apply an analogous system
in the army, except to the three corps men,
toned.
His proposed increase of the line is the
one which he presented last year. and would
involve an addition of close upon 1000 en-
listed men and of 1 . majors and 1 40 cap
tains, witha decrease of 5lieutenants. The
increase of enlisted men would be well
coined in the infantry and artillery, the
former adding two companies and thelatter
two foot batteries TO each regiment That
would give fifty additional infantry COM
panies and ten additional batteries, with
no Increase of the troops of cavalry. The
general results would be TO allow the exten-
sion of the tbree-battalion formation to
the former arm, while the latter would Sc
cure that additional strength which is rec
og nized as necessary for the future when
the new forts on the seacoast shall have
been built and armed. The extra cost for
the enlisted men will be about 81 100000
q year. and for the officers 5000, 900, max
ing a total of 81 100000.