The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-23
REGULARS IN FLORIDA
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PROFESS
SIGNALS AND VOLUNTEERS.
Priyates In the Regulars Show a Dss-
position to Re-Enlist as VOIun-
teers-The Social Question.


army. / do not mean that they exalt ii on
all occasions. Army officers are for the most
part men of modesty as we'll as courtesy.
But they often speak in a more or less i'm
patient way Of the prejudices that prevail
against a regular army, and of the unkind
and suspicious things that are said about it;
and they like to tell you how much better
and more effectively and mercifully this war
might have been fought if we had had a
regular army of 5000 men at the outbreak
of hostilities instead of one of $4,000. am
not going to repeat any of their arguments,
but L have seen some things here lately
which have been, it seems to me, instructive
on the main point, whether we are to de-
pend, in great crises on regulars or on vol
unteers.
Just now we have something more than
thousand volunteers encamped in a neigh
borhood where some ten or eleven thousand
regulars are encamped. In many ways these
volunteers are ridiculous, in comparison
with the regulars They are younger, small
err weaker They are undiscplined.
Though they are mostly of very good
class of people morally they furnished more
cases of drunkenness in day than all the
regulars had furnished III week That was
not because they were as Individual men
more inclined to drunkenness but because
they were undisciplined youths, suddenly
turned out of their homes into camp, and
felt themselves bound to do something
rough and solder-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 the regular
private soldier is nowhere at all. If he en-
tiers the big hotel where the headquarters
nj Uybi &c
full of officers, he enters it only as a mes
senger 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 non-commissioned officer cannot eat at
the same public table with officers nor
drink at the same bar This social distinc-
ton is not founded, 1t should be said, on the
assertion of any difference of class, but on
the necessity of discipline. An additional
circumstance of some interest is that the
glrls or Tampa are ashamed to be seen in
the company of a regular private soldier.
Now. we who had been in Tampa for a
couple OF weeks, and had grown accustomed
TO this state Of things, saw something Of
quite different sort when the Florida vol
unteerS arrived. Volunteer privateS of Flor
IDA are seen at the tables of the Tampa
Bay Hotel at dinner vis-a-vis with generals
was hop at the hotel the other evening
The dancers were made up almost entirely
OF oft1cers Of the army and of resident
young women In the midst of all the
shoulder straps. saw a young soldier who
had no shoulder straps His uniform was
not unlike that of a private of the regular
longed to the Florida militia He was a
private; But presently young lady who
was talking to an officer rushed up to him
and shook his hand cordially. Then she
presented him to the officer. Captain -,
f 5and is sn M hsaon The officer shook his
with the young man. They met as social
equals.
MATTERS OF DISCIPLINE
II you mention this matter to regular Off
GERS and point out the fact that they are
thus meeting private soldiers on a plane Of
social equality, they say, "Oh, that doesn't
make any difference-they are volunteers. >,
They are not responsible for the discipline
OF the Florida militia. They suffer no loss
of military caste on account of social inter-
course with its privates. 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
in this fact there lies a question of consid-
cradle public consequence. 1t is a fact that
IS likely to keep the ranks of the regular
army nlied with men of a certain sort and
almost no other. and prevent it from being
really representative of the American peo2
pie
In view of the claim that the regular
army is made up in large proportion of
native Americans, it is a matter of interest
10 note here the fact that very often when
you address any conversation to a. private
soldier, he replies in English, which is spok-
en- with a foreign accent. A great many
speak with German accent and a great
many more with an Irish accent. few
are evidently Englishmen. Many more have
lrlsh names do not mean that they may
nc AfrrAfx
one else, am simply noting an chronological
or social fact In some regiments, however,
s S,uci1 as the sixth cavalry one finds large
the regiments, it must be said, are beginning
70 draw more and more recruits from the
states In which they are stationed Nearly
all of this class are looking to a commission
Most of them are younger than the average
or the regular army
they have made. failure in life" some
now or other, and have gone into the army
as a sort or refuge. My observation and
inquiry have convinced me that the charge
that there is considerable proportion of ex-
convicts in the regular army is false There
may be discharged convicts in it. but they
are IN proportion so small that it is in
significant If discharged penitentiary con-
victs of good physique and good intentions
into the army, I am glad of it, Their expe-
rience IS likely TO be good for them and to
DO dc no harm to the service. .Nine-tenths of
the regular soldiers, when asked where they
come from, mention some city or large
town. The great rural masses Of the ponu-
lation of the United States seem to be only
slenderly represented in the regular army
NOT REPRESENTATIVE.
In fact, it is not at all representative
thing The question may we'll be asked
whether it ever can be- in view of the ne
| cessity of the maintenance Of the social
relation between officers and privates
which L have mentioned The ordinary
white American is unwilling to accept a
relation of conspicuous social inferiority
for two reasons: One, and the lesser, is
that he has been taught historically that
such relation must not exist in this coun-
try, because it is politically dangerous: and
the other and greater reason is that the
women for whom he most cares despise
him if he enters into it. The average
American is never going to be a regular
soldier so long as the girls of the same
sort of people that he belongs to refuse to
lar soldier, when they will freely walk with
a volunteer private. The social ambition
and keen sensitiYeness of American women
to social distinctions cuts a figure in this
question of the increase of the regular
army which has never been taken suf-
hclently into account
Some other things that I see here tend
to convince me that the volunteer service is
the real soldering that Americans think Of
and that a regular army can never be any,
thing more t1fafith thing apart from their
lives and thoughts. The regular soldiers
whose terms or office are expiring or likely
TO expire during this war are all anxious
to go into the Volunteers rather than TO re-
enlist No greater number of men appears
likely to be able to get into the volunteer