Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-05-07
RANK AND FILE.
ARE ONLY ONES AFFECTED BY
ARMY LAW PROVISIONS.
Will Have to Retain Additional OFF,
GERS Required for Spanish and
Philippine Wars.

New YORK, May "A special 10 tne
Tribune from Washington says: Con-
gress will perhaps be surprised to learn
that the army law of 1899 does not pro-
vide for the reduction of the regular
army to it's dimensions prior to 1893, as
is now popularity supposed. Experts say
that only the rank and file will be re-
ducdl to $4,000 men; that there is thin
BILE rigging phraseology in the law which
retains all the additional officers in the
service. Investigations appears to con-
firm this assertion.
Before the Spanish war the regular
army consisted of only 2S, ,267 men all told,
namely, $4,000 rank and file, 81 military
cadets and seven professors at West
Point, 2,164 general staff and line officers
in the active service. besides 1928 enlist
ed men and 663 officers on the retired
list AS enlarged from time to time
unoer the various war legislation that
followed, the United States army now
consists of Ga, 500 rank and file, 3Sl cadets
and eight West Point professors; 2,5s6
general, staff and line officers in active
service, with 1,447 enlisted men and 753
officers on the retired list. Besides these
regulars there are, approximately, $4,000
volunteers in the active service. These
figures show the following increases in
the various grades of the active service:
Enlisted men, 39969; officers, 442 pro-
fessor, 1; cadets, 10. On the retired list
there has been an increase OF ~ ofhcers
and 149 enlisted men.
In the expiring hours of the F'ifty-fifth
congress. by the agency of conference
committee, a law was rushed through
and approved on March 2, 1899, contain
ing a clause which provided that on and
after July /, 1901, "all the general, staff
and line officers appointed to the army
under this act shall be discharged, and
the number restored liz each grade to
those existing at the passage of this act
and the enlisted force of the line of the
army shall be reduced to the number as
provided for by law prior to April l.
1885,
This army law of 1899. known as the
Cockrell- German bill, is a muddle of in
explicable contradictions. The positive
recitations of the foregoing paragraph
apparently leave no escape from the
nearly universal conclusion that on July
/, 1901, the army is to go back to it's
original strength before the Spanish war,
unless meanwhile there is supplementary
legislation That such is the understand
ing in congress has been made manifest
by the utteranceS of members and SEN
ators in the discussion of pending army
legislation. This threatened event is
used constantly as an appear IOf lIlIne.
diate legislation to put the army on a
permanent footing.
Nevertheless vague hint has some
how got abroad recently that this law
of March 81, 1899, does not provide for re-
ducing the officers of the regular army
on the date named or any other date,
although superficial reading leads to
that impression, and that was undoubt-
edly what congress thought it was pro-
viding for when it passed the act.
A careful investigation leaves little
for doubt that both congress and ad-
ministration circles err in any presump-
tion that the Cockrell- German act puts
the official personnel of the army back
to its old number before the Spanish war
It unquestionably compels the reduction
of the enlisted strength to the old maxi
mum unless the present congress pro-
vides differently. and also the muster out
of the volunteer general staff and line
officers and the volunteer soldiery. But
few, if any, of the additional regular off,
GERS required for the Spanish and Philip
Dine wars will, can. or are intended to be
discharged under it's provisions.