The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-27
THE REGULAR ARMY.
The Difference Between Professional
Soldiers and Volunteers.
Tampa Letter in New York Post.

Tampa Letter in New York Post.
There is nothing that the regular army
officers talk about so much as the regular
army. do not mean that they exalt 1t on
all occasions. Army officers are for the
most part men of modesty as well as cour-
tesy. But they often speak in a more or
less impatient 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 anu more effectively and
mercifuny this war might have been
fought if we had had a regular army of
1900 men at the outbreak of hostilities
instead Of one of $500 I am not going
to repeat any of their arguments, but
have seen some things here lately which
have been, il seems to me, instructive on
the main point, whether we are to de-
pend, in great crises, on regulars or on
volunteers.
Just now we have something more than
a thousand volunteers encamped in
neighborhood where some ten or eleven
thousand regulars are encamped. In many
ways these volunteers are ridiculous, in
comparison with the regulars. They are
younger, smaller paler, weaker. They
are undisciphned. Though they are most
ly of a very good class of people morally,
they furnished more class of drunkenness
in day than all the regulars had furn-
ished In a week That was not because
they Were Is individual men more inclined
to drunkenness, but because they were
undlsciplined youths, suddenly turned out
OF their homes into a camp, and felt
themselves bound TO do something rough
and soldier-like. AS soldiers, they are
simply not, man for man, one-half what
the regulars are.
TQt4f fe int -, ~.
worth something more. Socially the regu-
lar private soldier is nowhere at all II
he enters the big hotel where the head
quarters of the army are and which is
constantly full of officers ne enters ii only
as a messenger for an officer, and must en-
ter it hat in hand, and go by an inconspic-
uCus 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 on-commissioned
officer cannot eat al the same public table
with officers, nor drink at the same bar
This social distinction is not founded, II
should be said, on the assertion of any
difference in class, but on the necessity Of
discipline. An additional Circumstance of
some interest is that the girls of Tampa
are ashamed to be seen In the company
of regular private soldier.
Now, we who had been in Tampa for a
couple of weeks, and had grown accus-
toned to this state of things, saw some
thing of quite a different sort when the
Florida volunteers arrived. Volunteer pri-
Yates of Florida are seen at the tables of
the Tampa Bay hotel at dinner, vis-a-vis
with generals and colonies of the regular
army. There was a hop" at the hotel the
other evening. The dancers were made up
almost entirely of officers of the army and
of resident young women. In the midst Of
the shoulder straps I saw a young soldier
VINO had no shoulder-straps His uniform
was not unlike that of a private of the
regular army; but it was easy to see that
he belonged TO the Florida militia He
was APP rivate. But presently young lady
who was talking with an officer rushed
UP to him and shook his hand cordially
Then she presented HIM to the officer
Capt -, this is Mr.. -" The officer
shook his hand, and began talking in cor
dial fashion with the young man. They
met as social equals.
II you mention this matter to regular
officers, 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 RESPONSE
bic for the discipline of the Florida mill
tia. They suffer no loss of military caste
on account of social Intercourse with it's
privates. Their position is consistent
enough. regular army could not be
made and kept good for much if the Off
Gers and soldiers We're likely to meet any
where on the same social plane But in
his fact there lies a question of consid-
cradle public consequence. II is a fact
that Is likely to keep the ranks of the
regular army filled with men of a certain
sort and almost no other, and prevent it
from being really representative of the
American people.