The times., 1898-12-14
THB ARMY BILL HEARINGS
Brig. Gen. Schwal Gives His
Views.
EN.CORBIN APPEARSTODAY
Major Johnston, ns Cavalry Expert,
and Major simpson, as irtiiiery
Expert, Give Testimony - The
Force of 0Mcers-An Inspector
ScboEeId Net.


yesterday continued its hearings Of army
witnesses on the bill to increase the
strength of the larmy. Only three W.T.
nesses were examined, all OF them from
the Office of the adjutant general. bur
each possessing special info nation as to
theSinfantry. cavalry and ar illery respec-
lively. Gen. Corbin came in for few
moments. but did not testify. He will
appear today.
Brig. Gen. Schwan, who ranks mex to
Gen. Corbin in the adjutant gene-ars Of
fee who entered the infantry in 1872 whel
only sixteen years old and worked up
through all the intervening grades of the
army, gave testimony as to the extent of
the forces provided by the bi l. and in E.
gard 10 the infantry organization pro-
posed.
Maj. ]. A. Johnston appeared as a cav
airy expert, and Maj W. A Simpson as
an artillery expert The last named Off
Ger was In the Philippines with Gtn Ne
Iitt. and was able to give the comm ttee
some interesting information in regard
to them.
He said that some of the Filipinos
were pulled up unduly, but that tie mass
OF the people were friendly and were "a
Vorable to American control. With every
day that the army renal. ed IN Y b me
more and more satisfied with this Gov
efnments management which W n
amazing contrast with that of Spain. He
thought that if America kept 20,OOJ troops
there for a while the effect would be 10
prevent any trouble. Personally he h d
found the natives very po ite, amilb and
pacific, and thought that they W, ull be
easily governed. Old residents. how YER
said that they We're not to be trusted
BY the widest sort of an estimate, he
would put the civilized and half civi lied
residents of the island of Luzon at 1900 =
COO. Most of the unconqueIed tr bss were
on Mindanao. They were Aiohammedans
and he thought that Spain's into eraGce
had much to do with their hos ity. he
favored raising great many local troops
in the Philippines
The hearing was begun with the testi-
mony OF Gen. Schwan, who helped Chair
man Hull to draw the Hull bill. He said:
The bill is based on the supposItion that
We shall have an army of 100000. men.
1t gives the various staff departments
about the number of officers they desire
but"does not give them the rank they ask.
The bill allots 1878 enlisted men to the
cavalry, 20,604 10 the artillery 5S,--y TO the
when those in the staff departments are
included, and 4 grand total of 1OO,5IS Off
GERS and men. There are thirty general
officers of the line and 372l other oflI-
GERS
Gen. Schwan then gave details as 70 the
force OF officers and men in each depart
ment and in each arm of the service. The
percentage of commissioned officers :, en-
listed men, he said, would be about SS-
a smaller proportion than that of the
present army.
Coming to the size of the companies,
Gen. Schwan agreed with both Gems. Miles
and Schofield in limiting the size Of the
cavalry company troops to about 100 men.
He recommended larger infantry COM
panies, however, as we'll as large reSi-
ments on the ground that probably one
third. or at least one-fourth, of an infan-
TRY company would never be on the line
of fire. The infantry is subject TO so many
disabilities that this was inevitable. He
believed that the regiment should con-
sist of 1850 men.
Representative Marsh, of the committee,
questioned the witness quite sharply on
this point. asking whether his judgment
was not influenced by the desire not to
unduly increase the regimental oihcers
and then have them cut down in few
this.
In answer to questions. Gen. Schwan
said that he thought that the present
strength of the army-62, ,coe-was not SUI
fcient for the needs of the service He
thought that the old army of 25ccJ was
not enough for the United States useit-
Tbev had proved Inadequate in the Pine
Ridge campaign. He thought @'Wp al
least were neeGed.
Major J. a. Johnston was the hrst W.T.
ness at the afternoon session. He declared
that the idea that the army was top heaVy
with cavalry was all wrong. 1t is, ne
said barely up TO the relative standard
of other countries under the present law
and the increase of two regiments author
ized by the Hull bill will barely main
tain it In due proportion TO the infantry
and artillery arms. At present between
one-fourth and one-sixth Of the regular
army Is cavalry. but only one twenty-sec-
ond of the entire army and volunteer
army. Napoleons armies were one-fourth
cavalry and the present German army IS
one-siXth.
while cavalry is expensive continued
the witness, .it cannot be created as
quickly as other arms in time of need.
The recruit has far more TO learn than
has an infantryman, and even small pro-
portion OF recruits may greatly injure the
efficiency oil the rest Oh liit ISSiiiShh-
Major Johnston thought that there
would be no difficulty in recruiting the
army. He said thar enlistments were
never so rapid as during the Spanish
war. although the volunteers were also II
the field seeking recruits.
Chairman Hull called attention TO a re-
quest that he had received from Secretary
Wilson that some provision be made II
the army bill to give veterinary surgeons
- 70 S,4sfN no
present the Secretary said that there were
loGoO sick horses in the South, and thai
the War Department was calling on hin
for men qualified to deal with them. Mr.
Hull asked the witness what he though
of proposition to give veterinarians th'
relative rank of second lieutenants. Majo;
Johnston approved of the proposal as in
ducing n better class to enter the service
Major w. Simpson, VINO spent his lif,
in the artillery until recently, argued
the case for the corps of artillery" pro
posed He said: An infantry or a cav
airy regiment goes TO war or to peac,
as a unit, but an artillery regiment neve
does Only twice since its organization II
1922 has my own regiment been together
and then only for few days. The colone
controls only the part of his regiment tina
is at his post, and that is rarely one-fourti
of it. In the Civil War each regiment wa
scattered all over the country withou
the least regard to its connections. Tn
regimental formation is use ess and shoul
be abandoned, and the battery made III
unit.
The witness met the objections of Ger
Miles and Gen. Schofield TO the new or
ganization by stating that 1t was cas-
to so change the paragraph as to pro
vide an inspector general on the stai
of each department commander VIII
should have charge of the technical wor
of H. ha dana rnPnf unda