Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-09-02
Standards Of Our Army and Navy Are
Unusually High.
COMPARED WITH EUROPEAN NATIONS
MANY WouId1Be Soldiers and Sail
ors Fail Of Admission.
DODGING THE DOCTORS


| Crultlng service In an eastern city said to
| a newspaper reporter a while back, in
speaking of the rigid tests to which appl-
cants for enlistment in the United States
| army, regulars and volunteers, are put:
| Il don't believe that one In four Of the
| men rendering enforced service in the
! French, German and Russian armies could
pass the physical examination that the
American soldier is required to pass
| number of the foreign medical journals
| have taken up the statement and criticised
| it. Their criticism are not convincing The
| recruiting officer was probably right. In
| the French, German and Russian armies
| respectively, there are of course, a few
| crack corps, the officers and men of which
| are pretty nigh perfect from a physical
| STANDPOINT. The enlisted men of these
| corps are drawn from the best of the con-
| scripts. But the conscript system renders
1t out OF the question for the army doc
| tors to employ zeal and strctnesS in the
| examination of men who are required by
| law to serve their government in uniform
| for a set period whether they want to or
| not. The consequence is that these great
| standing armies are composed mainly of
| troops that are only moderately fair con-
| sidered physically.
! Where the Difference Lies.
| II the examining surgeons were to pay
| any attention to the statements of the
conscripts as to their physical conditim
! there would be no big standing armies, for
many young Frenchmen. Germans and
| Russians, as their time for army service
draws nigh, endeaVor to devise schemes
| for presenting themselves to the surgeon
| in an incapable physical condition. and
numbers of them have even been known
| to MAIN themselves to avoid military ser
vice
Herein lies the great difference between
a standing of of the F,nrODp1D
| powers and an emergency army of the
United States. The average European con-
script exercises all of his ingenuity to the
end of convincing the examining surgeon
| that he is not fit for military duty. while
the American would-be recruit who wants
| to break into the service by hook or crook.
loses sleep if hes fears that some minor
| physical mperfeation will catch the eye Of
the examining doctor and bar him out of
| the service. In brief, the average foreign
conscript doesn't want to take on" and
| the average American would-be recruit is
crazy to take an else he wouldn't pre-
sent himself at a. recruiting office. 1t is
point Of difference that must count hugely
in action in the matter of comparative en-
thusiasm. What, it counts for in the mat
ter Of the general physical excellence of
the American troops is practically incalcu-
liable.
An Army Of Able Men.
The man who is passed by United
States army navy,surgeon is justified in
physically. 1t is maintained by men who
ought to know that never before has there
been got together. in any country. so large
a body Of completely sound men as that
formed py the regular and volunteer forces
of the American service at the present
time. -''' ~
During the rprogress of the civil war
even in its first stages when the army was
choosing it's men, the soldiers assembled
under the flag did not as a whole, even
Tapfn of
men now serving the United States on
land and sea Then any man who had the
requisite number of inches could get into
eli her service. When men began to be
called for by tens of thousands the Iimita-
tons as to stature were Topped off and the
examining surgeons simply sized up the
men with their clothes on to determine by
2uraOfy eye inspection If they possessed
fair apparent degree of hardness. Later,
when were summoned by of
thousands and the drafting process was
begun. the men were not examined at all
with the result that many thousands of
queer physical specimens were packing
muskets toward the close Of the war. while
many thousands more, physically incapable
of enduring the sufferngs and hariShips
incident to the service. were mustered out
by disease and death before the peace.
Resuiars and Volunteers.
All of the soldiers. officers and men. of
the present organization of American vol
unteers have passed the rigid physical ex-
animation required of applicants for
lfstment in the regular army of the United
States The majority of them have been
examined by regular army surgeons
These, however have not had any the
worst of the examination. for the volun-
tcer surgeons. as a matter of pride in
picking out the very best men, have been
quite as strict and. in some instances
Stricter than, the surgeons of the regular
establishment Their work of selection has
tam hos ri rn |,
the part Of young fellows who have longed
TO don the blue and get into the melee in
the far Pacific.
1t may be taken for granted that phys
lcally the American volunteers are just as
good as the regular troops. This is saying
Il great deal, too, for any man who is able
TO get into the United States army Is in
position to pat himself on the back and
thank his progenitors for furnishing him
with an absolutely correct physical make
up.
The army and navy examinations are
practically the same, neither SURPRISING
the other in point of severity. Before the
war with Spain began tho Navy Depart
ment, on account of the scarcity of naval
recruits, was contemplating considerable
relaxation in the severity of the examina-
ton given to applicants for enlistment. for
it was found that the surgeons were turn
ing down about four out of five men APP
plying for enlistment. For many years the
army doctors have been rejecting about
three out of five men applying for enlist
ment at recruiting OfnceS. II Wouiu De I'LL
ficult to eKaggerate the number of young
Americans Of apparently excellent physical
makeup-hundreds of them. indeed, strap
ping giants-who have been informed for
the first time by army or navy surgeons
that there something the matter with
their hearts, or their lungs, or their eyes.
sufficient to disqualify them for uniformed
service. The surprise with which most OF
these men receive such information from
the examining surgeon is pathetic.
Subject to Surprises.
"Valvular disease Off the hearth" man
who is rejected fer this reason will ex-
claim. why I neveg knew before that l
had heart. I can rIn five miles without
feeling it, Another pan turned down by
the doctor for defectiye eyesight Will say,
and believe it when hefsays 1t, that he can
read by moonlight. and the man who Is re-
jected on account of a slight shyness in the
matter of hearing will conscienttously
swear that he can hear pin fali at dis
lance of half block.
A maxim of army and navy doctors is
this only one man in ten Is exactly
right" The examining surgeon Will
promptly tell the turneddown man why he
is rejected, but the applicant Is rarely sat
i5fed. Even the old timers in both services
have got notions about the examining
methods of the surgeons, and many of