Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-05-08
NO PROVISION MADE
In the Law of 1899 for the Reduction
of the Regular Army to Its Old
Prannrfi0ns.

of the Regular Army to Its Old
| Proportions.
WASHINGTON, May 7.--Congress
! will perhaps be surprised to learn that
| the army law of 1899 does not provide
| for the reduction of the regular army
| to ITS dimensions prior to 1898, as is
now popularity supposed. Experts say
that ouly the rank and file will be re-
duced to $4,000 men; that there is
thimblersgging phraseology in the law
which retains all the additional Off
GERS in the service.
Investigation appears to confirm this
assertion.
Before the Spanish war the regular
army consisted of only 28,267 men all
told, namely: $4,000 rank and file, 371
military cadets and seven professors
at West Point; 2,f64 general, staff and
line officers in the active service, be-
sides 1.29S enlisted men and 663 Off
GERS on the retired list. AS enlarged
from time to time under the various
war legislation that followed, the
United States army now consists of Ga
969 rank and file, 3S1 cadets and eight
West Point professors, 2,5S6 general
staff and line officers in active service.
with ,447 enlisted men and 1853 Off
GERS on the retired list.
Besides these regulars there are ap-
proximately $4,000 volunteers in the
active service These figures show the
following increases in the various
grades of the active service:
Enlisted men, $1,000; officers. 422:
professors, one; cadets, TO- On the
retired list there has been an increase
+oH
In the expiring hours of the Fifty
fifth Congress, by the agency of a
conference committee, law was
ruslSed through and approved on March
2. 1929, containing a clause which pro-
vides that on and after July l, 1901,
"all the general, staff and line officers
appointed to the army under this act
shall be discharged and the numbers
restored in each grade to those exist
ing at the passage of this act, and the
enlisted force of the line of the army
shall be reduced to the number as pro-
vided for by law prior to April l,
1885,
This army law of 1899, known as the
Cockrell- German bill, is muddle OF
inexplicable contradictions. The posi-
tive Rotations of the foregoing para
graph apparently leave no escape from
the nearly universal conclusion that
on Iuly /, 1901, the army is to go
back to its original strength before the
Spanish war, unless meanwhile there
is sup Elementary legislation. That
this is the understanding in Congress
has been made manifest by the utter
ances of Members and Senators in the
discussion of pending army legislation.
This threatened event is used constant
" as an appeal for immediate legisla-
ton to put The army on permanent
footing.
Nevertheless the vague hit has
somehow got abroad that this law OF
March 2, 1899, does not provide for re-
ducing the officers of the regular army
on the date named or any other date,
although a superficial reading leaves
that impression and that was undoubt-
edly what Congress was providing for
when it passed the act. A careful in
vestigation leaves little room for doubt
that both Congress and administration
circles err in any presumption that
the Cockrell-Gorman act puts the OIL
cial personnel of the army back to its
old number before the Spanish war.
It unquestionably compels the reduc-
ton of the enlisted strength to the old
maximum unless the present Congress
provides differently and also the mus
ter out of the volunteer general, staff
and line officers and the volunteer sol
diery.
But few, if any, of the additional reg
ular officers required for the Spanish
and Philippine wars will, can or are
intended to be discharged under it's
provisions.