The San Francisco call., 1898-12-13
GENERAL MILES BEFORE
 THE MILITARY COMMITTEE
Tells of the Necessity of Increasing the Regular Army to One Hun
 dred Thousand Men.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 - Mafor-Gen- eral Miles appeared to-day before the House Committee on Military Affairs for a hearing relative to the proposed reor- ganization and increase in the army. At the outset General Miles addressed kim self to the general need of increasing the army. It was necessary now to consider both our military requirements at home and those of our new colonial dependen- cies abroad, and also the rapidly increas- ing demands made by our seacoast forti- ficationS
 The war with Spain has shown pretty clearly how many men would be needed, General Miles said. The war had requir- ed 52,000 men for actual field operations at various points. Of these p 900 men went to Manila, 20,oO0 to Cuba and 10000 to Porto Rico. These were men actually in the presence of the hostile enemy. Since then there had been re-enforcements for garrison and other purposes At the same time, the general pointed out that the necessities at home must. not be over looked. The entire frontier had been stripped of troops during the late war, and complaints were coming in that the the West had been jeopardized by this condition. In particular there were fears of an outbreak in the Sioux country be- cause of the absence of troops. It was not desirable, therefore to withdraw our forces from the frontier so as 70 leave them defenseless or to invite disorder.
 These considerations. said General Miles. had led him to. recommend a standard of one soldier for each 1000 of population al home, with the native troops on a basis of two soldiers for eve ry 1000 of native population.
 General Miles said that probably 10000 men would be sufficient for Cuba in the near future. The officers in the Philip pines estimated that they would require 900 men were needed abroad and 35,0OO at home.
 At the afternoon session General Scho- field, who preceded General Miles in com mand of the army, devoted his chief at tention to the friction inevitably arising between the Secretary of War and the system. This had occurred under the command of General Scott, who removed his headquarters to New York to avoid differences arising with the War Depart mand of General Sherman. who went to St. Louis to avoid friction. The trouble arose out of the system which gave the head of army the name of commanding general, when in fact he had little or no 2 he does as aSTbp d with the Secretary of War. If these re- lations are not close then the Secretary of War gets to ignoring the so-called commanding general. In that event the adjutant general became more impor- tant official than the commanding gen. eral. General Schofield urged that one of the most essential features of army reor- ganization was to give the President ab- solute power to select his own command ing officer. Instead of creating the per- manent grade of lieutenant general he fa- vored giving the President authority to select at any time lieutenant general, the officer occupying that position retir- ing to his former grade. The title also should be that of general-in-chief instead of commanding general, as that would better express the idea that the head of the army was the executive officer for the President and Secretary of War.