The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-03-05

proposed reorganization is to be car
ried out by men of military capacity
and whose hands are not smirChed with
participation in these latter day scan
dals, then good results may be eX-
pected.
The first thing needful is for us to
recognize that professional training is
Just as important for staff officer as
it is for a doctor, a lawyer or a mining
engineer.
| don't say that great military lead
ers have not been developed without
professional training, but they are rare
as great physicians without Il knowl-
edge of anatomy. No man had greater
experience of the virtues of volunteer
armies than George Washington, nor
did any commander realize more COM
pletely the faults as we'll as the viz
tues of regulars. He was a staff off
Ger with British troops in 1868 ana Tor
seven years fought against British reg
ulars with his revolutionary army. 1t
was this dispassionate patriot who rec
commended the establishment of
military school at West Point for the
training of officers who might in time
of war command our troops in the field.
The idea of Washington was carried
into effect, as we all know, and how
| splendidly has he been justified by the
| result!
| One of the most splendid military
achievements was the march into Mex
leo in 1S47--a handful of men, thousands
| of miles from the base. victorious
from start to finish, although fighting
their way against great odds through
| an unknown country. The transport
service in that war compared with
that in the last expedition in Cuba,
makes us wonder whether We are of
the same breed as captured Vera Cruz
and planted the American flag over the
halls of the Montezumas.
The Mexican war was conducted
mainly by West Pointers, many OF
them subsequently winning worldwide
recognition as leaders of armies on
both sides of the civil war.
The names of Grant. Sherman, Sheri-
dan, Schofield. Lee, Stonewall Jackson
and a dozen others spring at once to
the mind when we recall gratefully the
debt which the nation owes to West
Point. In both those wars important
commands were also held by. generals
whose military experiences had been
gained in other ways and If any ia
vortsm was shown it was in the di-
rection Of encouraging volunteer rather
than regular officers.
But the men of those days didn't
traffic with posts in the army as
though they were third class postmas-
terships. And for that reason Ameri-
cans look back with pride to their
military history prior to the Santiago
campaign.
| The admnistratio n at Washington
has acted from first to last as though
the mere fact of having received a
West Point training should prove a dis
qualification ito an officer Almost with
out exception every head of the mill
tary department at Washington, in
| rli1dipy r, a n in rhIraf and
the adjutant general. are non-gradu-
ates The commanders of the different
army corps We're notable also for alb
sence of professional training. Even
the colonies of the regular regiments
were overwhelmingly non graduates of
the military academy.
When the war broke out it would
have been the most natural thing that
those who applied for military posi-
tons from civil life should begin at
the bottom as second lieutenants and
work their way up, as in any other
business. The regular army was Off
cered in the lower grades by captains
old enough to be major generals and
by leutenants with gray hairs The
majority of those below the rank OF
colonel were West Pointers who could
have advantageously been at once pro
NOTED to command the new volunteer
brgades or, at least, to do the duties OF
staff officers. Instead of this. West
Point lieutenants and captains of Il
years military service were left II
command of their small fractions OF
so to 100 men, while retired soda water
squirters We're made staff colonies and
generals.
, 1t was Sentimentally a beautiful
thing that the gray and the blue should
shake hands after the civil war, anG
that General Fitzhugh Lee Should
command an army corps. But practt.
cally that gallant politician was not 81
fit for his position as he was thirty
years ago-no more fit than would be
a traffic manager of a great railway
whose knowledge of railroading stoppeC
when Sherman made his march to tht
sea.
A West Point graduate, fresh from
the duties of his regiment, would haVt
been a better choice and the politica
objects might have been equally wei
obtained for selecting for such com
mands men from the same state or tbs
, same county as the gallant former con
sui general. / know brigadier generals
+ who We're so helpless that they CoulC
, not march their troops in and out O.
camp, and whose staff of civilians hat
been so preoccupied with political prob
! lens that they didn't know how to re
QUESTION bucket from the Quartermas
r | Ter general
= In some instances these warriors re
y QUESTIONED youngster fresh from
West Point who did practically all tn
+ staff work of the brigade; coached hi
brigadier general as to the proper com
, mands to be given, and all on the salar
p of a tirst-Class stoker.
v Great regulations were made for on
, volunteer Falstaffs by West Point strir
+ lings too honorable to shirk their duty
? too loyal to resign. and too well drille
to complain in the newspapers.
Reorganization of our army is simpl
O enough if reorganizng is done by goo
: men. We have tried running the arm
as a perquisite of the secretary of wal
/, and the result leaves something to b
. | desired.
q We can't entertain the oft-repeate
; COOK RE