Evening star., 1898-04-23
ARMY REORGANIZATION
Bill Increasing War Footing to Over
10000.
Secretary Alger Points Out the Ur-
gent Necessity OF Passing
the Measure.

The army reorganization bill was report
| ed to the House by Chairman Hull Thurs
day afternoon. The report on the bill says:
THE bill authorizes the twenty-five regi-
| ments Of the infantry arm of the service
to be recruited up to a total of 81 800 en-
listed Men. 1t authorizes the recruitment
| of the ten regiments of the cavalry arm
of the service to a total of 12,OOO enlisted
men, the seven regiments of the artillery
arm of the service to be recruited to 16, 457
men and the engineer battalion Of five
! companies to be enlisted up to 752 enlisted
men. including two noE-commissioned Off
GERS; which makes total for these four
arms of the service. when at a maximum
strength, Of 61.01O.
''The increase of officers provided for in
the bill is:
First. Twenty-Five majors. as provided
in the first section of the BILL and these
majors are a perm anent addition to the
commissioned officers of the regular army
Second. One hundred and fifty commits
stoned officers. TO provide for the two in
fantry companies in the third battalion for
each Of the twenty-five regiments of in
fantry.
Third. Eighty-four second neutenants
being one for each of the eighty-four bat
teries of artillery when recruited to a war
strength. These second leutenants are
only % be added in the discretion of the
President, but assuming that the extra
lieutenant IS necessary and will be COM
missi1ned for each battery of artillery it
makes a total of commissioned officers in
excess of the present number authorized
by law of 259.
"Of this number, as above stated twen-
ty-nve are majors for the permanent sec
end battalion. and the other 234 officers,
1t Is provided in the last section of the
be either absorbed by filling any vacancies
existing in the other companies Of the
service or by an honorable discharge, as
may be deemed necessary to reduce the
commissioned officers of the army to the
number now provided for by the first sec
ton of this act.
The last section of the bill also pro-
vides for the reduction of the enlisted force
OF the army to the number now provided
for by law, so that if this bill as reported
by the committee Is adopted the only per-
manent Increase in the army will be the
twenty-five majors.
Secretary Alger's RecOmm enda ton.
Accompanying the report Is an explana-
tory letter from Secretary Alger as fol-
lows:
Now that the bill to provide for tenn
porarily increasing the military establish
ment of the United States in time of war
has passed the House of Representatives
l beg respectfully to point out the urgent
necessity Of prompt action on the Hull
army reorganization bill Oh. r. 9s7S.
The two measures are so Intimately re-
lated that the enactment Of one to the ex-
clusion of the other would leave the system
upon which We depend for carrying on
war incomplete and inharmonious. To IL
lustrate, according to the former bill the
volunteer force is to correspond in it's or
ganization to the regular army; yet the
legal organization of that army is obsolete,
and Is certainly wholly unsuited to a war
situation. Again, in the matter of the pay
OF enlisted men, the Hull bill provides for
an increase of one-ffth while the troops
are operating against an enemy The vol
unteer troops are interested equally with
regular soldiers in this and other provisions
of the Hull bill
1.-The existing exigency is my excuse for
requesting immediate attention to this i'm
pOrtant measure"
An important feature of the bill is the
following:
THAT in the event of a call by the Presi-
dent for either volunteers or the militia of
the country, the President is authorized
to accept the quotas Of troops of the vari-
Gus states and territories. including the
District of Columbia. organized under
the laws of the states and territories in
Guiding the District of Columbia"