The times., 1898-12-08
THURSDAY, DECEMBER s, 1895
Army Reorganization.

Army REORGANIZATION.
The plan of army reorganization pro-
posed in the bill which General Miles
has submitted to the War Department
for presentation to Congress. was given
fully in The Times of last Saturday. II
is now before the country in official
form and will not fail to excite great
interest in Congressional. professional,
and lay circles. since army reorganiza-
tion is a reform highly necessary for
the country to undertake, and to I'M
dertake at once.
Every consideration of public policy,
and We might add of good politics" as
TAR as concerns The Administration, de-
mands that there should be an imme-
diate increase in the numerical force of
the regular army. Volunteer regiments
enlisted for the Spanish war are con-
tinually fretting against military ser
vice in the tropics in time of peace.
obviously the country is in no condi-
ZION to trust its colonial interests to the
protection of discontented army. But
the volunteers cannot be relieved until
their places are filed by some other
sort of soldiers. In short. the condi-
lions of the day unquestionably demand
an enlargement of our military estab-
lishment TO a strength of one hundred
thousand men at least, and that is what
The Miles bill contemplates.
SO far it will meet with perhaps little
or no opposition, and it is SO conserva-
tive in its propositions, for departure
from the standards of Baron Steuben,
which have hitherto made the Ameri-
oan army solitary surviving modern
example of the military organization
adopted by Frederick the Great, that
we are at loss to see where it should
be antag oniZed at any point, except
possibly upon grounds which should
have no existence in considering a sub
ject Of such national character and
technical Importance.
The few radical changes in our
military system proposed by General
Miles viii appeal favorably and
strongly to every soldier and to
every student of military science.
If any criticism could be justly Of
fered it would be that the plan does
not go far enough in the direction Of
adjustment to recognized standards of
modern. military organization, in fail
ing TO adopt and fully apply the prin-
ciple on which the general staff of, say
the German army is formed To state
8 it briefly, the underlying idea of the
German staff is that to be thoroughly
equipped and successful general, an Of
ficer should have had practical experi-
ence in every asm of the service, and
assignments to staff and other duty are
made successfully with that object in
view. General Miles evidently recog-
nizes the principle in his proposition to
practically abolish the permanent fea-
ture of our staff organization, and to
substitute for it a system of temporary
the relesation of officers so assigned to
.heir colors. 1t is forward step great
iy to be commended.
As to another important proposition,
that of establishing the grades of
general and lieutenant general per-
manently. its desirablit and Iog.c
are unassailable. We have more than
once called attention to the fric-
tion, jealousies, and Decentralization
which naturally result, and in the his
tory of our army have resulted, from
having generals all of identical rank
and military consequence, respectively
in command of divisions, corps d.
According to all modern understand. ne
distinct army should be commanded
by full general, corps by a lieuten-
ant general. and a division by a major
general. In the German army a bri-
ade is commanded by a major general
because the infantry regiments are
three thousand men strong. General
Miles does not propose to do away with
the grade of brigadier general, which
largely has been abandoned in Europe
or retained only as a provisional rank
Our army in time of peace will be Sc
scattered in small commands that per-
haps tie brigadier may still be ne.
cessity with us.
The proposed division of the fifty reg.
iments of infantry into two corps OF
three, divisions Of three brigades OF
three regiments each, appears to be a
good plan, and the provision to perm.
the assignment of the superior officers
TO inspection duty. as well as to terri
toriaI or other command is sensible as
tending to give variety TO duty. and ia
keep dry rot out of the loftier planes
of the service.
Limitations of space at the moment
prevent a fuller review of a plan and
measure which strikes US as being as