The record-union., 1899-11-29
ARMY AND NAVY.
Gov. Roosevelt Contrasts Their
Conditions.

conditions.
In the November number of the
Century Magazine in a paper on
Military Preparedness and Unprepar-
edness, Governor Roosevelt contrasts
the condition of the American army
with that of the navy in 1898. and
draws an obvious moral from the con-
trast:
AS last as the new navy was built we
mad to break in the men to handle 1t.
Inc young officers who first took hold
ana developed the possibilities OF our
torpedo boats, for instance, really de-
serve as much credit as their successors
nave rightly received for handling them
with cash and skill during the war.
Inc Admrals who first exercised the
new SHIPS In squadrons were giving the
training without which Dewey and
Sampson would have found their tasks
llncomparably more difficult. As for the
ordinary officers and seamen, of course
II was their lncessant practice in hand
ing the ships and the guns at sea, in
all kinds OF weather, both alone and
IN company. year in and year out, that
made them able to keep up the never re-
laxing night blockade at Santiago, to
--~~~NAAe1
to prevent breakdowns and make re-
pairs of the machinery, and, finally, to
hit what they aimed at when the bat
tie was on. In the naval bureaus the
great bulk of what in the army would
De called staff places are held by line
officers. The men who made ready the
guns were the same men who after
ward used them. In the engineering
yxrora f1n L. III 4
or were to handle the engines in action.
Inc Bureau of Navigation the Bureau
OF Equipment, the Bureau of Informa-
ton, We're held by men who had COM
manded ships in actual service, or who
were thus to command them against the
Spaniards. The head of the Bureau of
Navigation is the Chief of Staff, and he
| has always been an officer of distinc-
| ton, detailed, like all Of the other bu-
reau chiefs, for special service. From
the highest to the lowest officer, every
naval man had seen and taken part,
during time Of peace, in the work which
he would have to do in time of war.
The Commodores and Captains who
took active part in the war had COM
manded fleets in sea service or at the
least had been in command of single
ships in these fleets. There was not
one thing they We're to do in war which
they had not done in peace, save ac-
tually receive the enemy's fire.
Contrast this with the army. The
material in the army is exactly as good
as that in the navy, and in the lower
ranks the excellence is as great. In no
service, ashore or af1oat, in the world
could better men of their grade be
found than the Lieutenants, and in
deed the Captains, of the infantry and
dismounted cavalry at Santiago. But
in the army the staff bureaus are per-
manent positions, instead of being held,
as of course they should be, by officers
detailed from the line, with the needs
of the line and experiences of actual
service fresh in their minds.
The artillery had for thirty-fiv years
had no field practice that was in the
slightest degree adequate to its needs.
or that compared in any way with the
practice received by the different COM
panies and troops of the infantry and
| cavalry. The bureaus in Washington
were held for the most part by elderly
men, of fine records in the past, who
were no longer fit to break through
routine and to show the extraordinary
energy, business capacity, initiative and
Willingness to accept responsibility
which were needed Finally, the higher
officers had been absolutely denied that
chance to practice their profession to
which the higher officers of the navy
had long been accustomed. Every time
war ship goes to sea and cruises
around the world, it's Captain has just
such an experience as the Colonel of
regiment would have if sent off for
a six or eight months march, and if
during those six or eight months he in
cessantly practiced his regiment in ev-
cry item Of duty which it would have
to perform in battle. Every war ship
in the American navy, and not single
regiment in the American army, had
had this experience