The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-05-24
Regulars and Volunteers.

There is nothing that the regular army
oI1cers talk about 90 much as the reg
uiar army. says q correspondent who is
al Tampa, continuing: 1 do not mean
that they exalt 1t on all occasions. Army
onlcers are for the most part men of
modesty as well as courtesy. But they
olten speak IN a more or less impatient
way Of the preJudices that prevail against
regular army, and OF the unkind and
suspicious things that are said about 1t;
and they like TO tell you how much better
and more effectively and mercifuliy this
war might have been fought II we had
had regular army Of 1900 men at the
out break Of hostilities instead OF one OF
ZS'OW. l am not going 10 repeat any OF
their arguments. but I have seen some
things here lately which have been, II
seems to me. instructive on the main
point, whether We are to depend, in great
crisis, on regulars or on volunteers.
Just now We have sonnet hing more than
a thousand volunteers encamped in q
neighborhood where some ten or eleven
thousand regulars are encamped. IN many
ways these volunteers are ridiculous, IN
comparison with the regulars. They are
younger, smaller, paler, weaker. They
are undisciplined Though they are most
iy CT very good class of people morally,
they furnished more cases Of drunkenness
in day than all the regulars had furn-
ished in a week. That was not because
they were as individual men more inciin-
ed 10 drunkenness, but because they were
undisciplined youths. suddenly turned out
OF their homes into a camp, and felt them
selves bound to do something rough and
soldier-like. As soldiers, they are simply
not, man for man, one-half what the
regulars are.
But there is one point in which they are
worth something more. Socially are reg
ular private soldier is nowhere at all
II he enters the big hotel where the
headquarters of the army are. and which
is constantly full of officers, he enters
il only as messenger for an officer, and
must enter it hat in hand, and go by an
inconspicuous way around to the desk and
present his message, and when he has
had his answer, he must go out IN the
same way. The private soldier or nom
commissioned officer can not eat at the
same public table with officers, nor drink
at the same bar. This social distinction
is not founded, 1t should be said. on the
assertion of any difference of class. but
on the necessity of discipline. An addi-
tional circumtance of some interest is
that the girls Of Tampa are ashamed to
be seen in the company OF regular pri-
vate soldier.
Now, we who had been in Tampa for a
couple of weeks, and had grown accus-
toned to this state of things, saw some
thing of quite a different sort when the
Florida volunteers arrived. Volunteer
privates of Florida are seen at the tables
of the Tampa Bay hotel at dinner. VISA
Wis with generals and colonies of the reg
ular army. There was HOP" at the
hotel the other evening. The dancers
were made up almost entirely of officers
of the army and of resident young wO-
men. In the midst of all the shoulder
straps 1 saw young soldier who had no
His uniform was not I'M /
like that of private Of the regular army; |
to the Florida militia. He was private |
But presently young lady who was talk
ing with an officer rushed up TO him and |
shook his hand cordially. Then she pre- |
sented him to the officer. Captain --,
this is Mr.. - The officer shook his !
hand, and began talking in cordial fash |
lon with the young man. They met as |
social equals.
If you mention this matter to regular |
officers, and point out the fact that they |
are thus meeting private soldiers on |
,lane Of social equality, they say: ''Oh, |
hat doesn't make any difference-they |
are volunteers" They are not responsible |
Tor the discipline of the Florida militia. |
They suffer no loss of military caste on
account of social intercourse with its pr-
rates. Their position is consistent |
enough. A regular army could not be
made and kept good for much If the
officers and soldiers were likely to meet
anywhere on the same social plane. But
n this fact there lies question of con-
;idera BILE public consequence. 1t is a fact
hat is likely to keep the ranks of the
'egular army filled with men of a certain
sort and almost no other. and prevent it
rom being really representative of the
American people.
In fact, it is not at all representative
hing. The question may well be asked
whether it ever can be. in view of the
necessity Of the maintenance of the social |
citation between officers and privates
which I have mentioned. The ordinary
white American is unwilling TO accept a
citation Of conspicuous social inferiority. |
or two reasons: One, and the lesser, is
hat he has been taught historically that
uch a relation must not exist in this
country, because il is politically danger
JUS; and the other and greater reason is
hat the women for whom he most cares
espise him if he enters into it. The
lverage American is never going 10 be a
ocular soldier so long as the girls of
he same sort of people that he belongs
0 refuse to be seen walking on the
/
7ill freely walk with volunteer private.
The social ambition and keen sensitive
ess of American women to social distinc-
ions cuts figure in this question of the
Increase of the regular army which has
lever been taken sufficiently into &C
cunt.
Some other things that I see here tend
o convince me that the volunteer service
the real soldering that Americans think
f, and that a regular army can never
e anything more than q thing apart from
heir lives and thoughts The regular
oldiers whose terms of office are expiT-
lg or likely 10 expire during this office
re- all anxious to go into the volunteers
ather than 10 re-enlist. No great num-
er OF them appears likely 10 be able to
ct into the volunteer service just now,
ut it has great attractions TO them. So
t has to all the young officers; they
eem 70 be 10 a man anxious 10 get COM
MISSIONS in the volunteer army superior
0 the ones they now hold in the regular
rmy. They all hope 10 return TO the
egulars after their possible volunteer
ervice shall be over. and they do not
ope 10 come back 10 IL on terms much
etter than their present ones. But the
erviCe appears real. inviting, and stir
ing 10 them. Even they seem to recog-
ize a sort Of relation in the volunteer
ervice 10 the vital activities OF the ma
ion which perhaps they do not feel in
be regulars.
News Notes.
In Japan coins are generally of iron,