The evening times., 1896-10-30
LIFE IN THE REGULAR ARMY
Depressing Study of the Man
Behind the Gun.
UN-AMERICAN In TRAITS
Hard Social Conditions of the Private
Soldier-RegulatiOn That Degrade
and Brutalize-Alleged Esprit de
Corps sAnalyzed-Idleness Prevents
Many From DESERVING.
lposton Evening Transcriptl


learning something about the common SOL
dier-the man who is, technically at least
the body and soul of our country's defense
against all enemies. / have slakcd my burn-
ing thirst for Information with government
literature and tue animated lore OF Objects
of the War Department; have persohely
inspected the detail OF the SOLDIER NE
at Fort Myer for three years nave Known
Intimately the everyday expef1elce oi d
trooper, and have preyed upon iaii'i,! eui,-
pectious with the army TO gam the khowf
edge that | might-ail Of when mas con-
firmed my mind in thls:
1 think the United states army is utterly
uninteliigent in spirit and absolutely uh-
American in character and aim.
"Nopsense,'' said an officer TO whom 1
made TINS statement, you forget that the
relations of men III tie army are esschuai
to discipline, ana you must remember that
no man is forced To accept the terms he be-
comes a soldier OF lis own free Will, ana
makes no sacrifice Of which he is not aDie III
advance to count the cost"
TINS Is All true. Nevertheless, in my silly
little mind I've the notion that every lhsti-
tuition OF the government should, In theory
at least, embody the ideals That form the
spirit of our democracy, and this spirit Ie-
clarng first of all that under the law OF
the United States all men are free anu
equal, | can't for the iifc OF me understand
how an American Institution can consist
emily, on any sort of plea, provide that one
man shall he the interior of another.
FOSTERING IDLENESs.
You need not tell me that the caste of
the army is nothing more than an .X-
preston OF natural law, which not all the
Deneficent provisions OF democracy eau
overcome, that the common soldier In the
nature of his being and circumstances II
his life is inherehtly the inferior orInen wto
command him In the army. WhateVer Is
true of his nature and circumstance, IL Is
still contrary To the spirit OF American hb-
erty that the United states government
should Officially proclaim and confirm any
inherent inferiorlty OF any Of its people
That 1t shoIld do so as a means or uciensc
in the provisions OF penal institutions can
understand, but to organize Its army On
this plan-well, as IesulI OF this we nave
the spectacle Of government lnsutGtiCn,
on principle, fostering immortality and en-
couraging Idleness in $4,000 men.
Among the qualifications required Of the
applicant for admission 70 the army is that
he shall be unmarried. Special authority
from the adJutant generals office may
overrule this regulation. In such instance
the provision still operates, however, To
the effect that the soldiers VIE and
family are not IN ahv wise recognized ~
existing. His pay is fiXsl without reference
u IneIr needs, no shelter is provided them
within tn e post where ne may be quartered,
and in his transfer from post to post they
follow him as they can. Thus a man If
he marries as a soldier must submit To the
systematic degradation OF his wife nj fam
lily, who, under all circumstances during his
connection with the army, must remain
despised outcasts, mere hangers-on Of the
order OF life i'll which he figures. NOr-coni-
missioned Officers have quarters provided
ing for which no other demand is made al
WAYS answers" is the way an officer ut
Fort Myer defined to me a location in gen.
eral of these quarters. But II the social
degradation of non-cOmmisSioned Officers
families is one whit improved over the con-
dition of the family Of a private, marriage
operates hone the less with them to damn
a soldiers career. No married man Is
eligible to the candidacy for promotion; con-
sequenuy no soldier can serve his country
with the lauda bic ambition of coming up
from the ranks, only as he forfeits his
inalienable right to all the life, liberty and
pursuit of happiness which the family re.
lation affords man.
DEGRADEs THE SOLDIER.
That the regulation against marriage de-
grades a soldier no profound reasoning nor
mass Uffacts and figures is required to slow.
II is "A simple, patent fact or the physical
perience and observation affirms, that TO
abstract he idea Of marriage from a mans
tcheme Of live, save as his object is "A
spiritual one, is to impel that man to de-
hatchery, the degree Of which to any in
diyidual Will be determined by circun stance
of Temperament and Of previous moral train
ing.
Several years ago / knew youngster,
clever. handsome, well educated, well born,
who disappointed i'll love ana further dis
appointed by failure in an effort lie made
to get an appoint ment In the arm Y, enlisted
at Fort Myer. Up TO this time the common
soldier had been to mt Il pretty automatnn
necessary to the beautiful effects pro
duced by officers on parade or in exhibition
drillS-a very remote, purely mechanical,
wholly impersonal consideration to be in
cluded in that burning love for the military
which all true women feel. Bot that he was
a human being, with ordinary human in
terestS, advanced or lindcred blythe position
he occupied, never entered my head until
through the medium of my sympathy with
the youngster / have mentioned. came
by proxy to experience the career of
common soldier.
The effect of this upon mans social
standingI was at first absolutely incapable
of comprehending. The day before the
youngster donned the uniform of soldier
he was u welcome guest in the homes of a
number of officers, and the next day not
only did these men and their families absc-
lutely ignore the existence of the youngster,
but appointed walking delegates from their
number to visit me and inform my civilian
ignorance that, now Blank was a common
soldier, must not receive him at my house
under penalty of hurting my reputation.
PRACTICAL INFERIORITY
Army discipline is not the whole OF it.
The technical infcrority which the soldier
represents in relation to discipline becomes
actual, positive, potent, practical inferiority