The age-herald., 1901-12-04

are commissioned. Good ships and good
 guns are simply good weapons. and the
 best weapons are useless save in the
 hands of men who know how to fight
 with them. The men must be trained and
 drilled under a thorough and we'll
 planned system of progressive instrue-
 ton, while the recruiting must be carried on with still greater vigor. Every effort must be made to exalt the main function
 of the ofiicer--the command of men.
 The leading graduates of the Naval Academy should be assigned to the com
 batant branches. the line and marines.
 Many q the essentials of success are al- ready recognized by the general board. which as the central office of a growing staff is moving steadily toward the prop CT war efficiency and the proper efficiency of the whole navy, under the secretary.
 This General Board. by fostering the creation of a general staff. is providing for the official and then the general rec ognition of our altered conditions as a nation and of the true meaning of a great war fleet, which meaning Is, first, the best men, and, second. the best ships.
 The Naval Militia forces are state or ganizations, and are trained for coast ser vice, and in event of war they will con- stitute the inner line of defense They
 
 from the general government.
 But in addition we should at once pro- vide for a National Naval Reserve, or ganized and trained under the direction of the Navy Department, and subject to the call of the Chief Executive whenever war becomes Imminent. It should be a real auxiliary to the naval seagoing peace establishment, and offer material to be drawn on at once for manning our ships in time of war. It should be composed of graduates of the Naval Academy, grad uates of the Naval Militia, officers and crews of coast line steamers longshore schooners fishing vessels, and steam yachts. together with the coast popula- tion about such centers as life-saving sta tions and lighthouses.
 l The American people must either build | and maintain an adequate navy or else
 make up their minds definitely to accept
 a secondary position in international af- I fairs, not merely in political but in com mercial matters. It has been well said
 that there is no surer way of courtins
 national disaster than to be "opulent, ag- I gressive, and unarmed."
 The Army.
 l It Is not necessary to increase our army I beyond its present size at this time l But it is necessary to keep it at the high l est point of efficiency The individual units who as officers and enlisted men l compose this army are, we have good I reason to believe, at least as efficient as those of any other army In the entire world. It Is our duty to see that their | training is of a kind to insure the high | est possible expression of power to these units when acting in combination.
 | The conditions of modern war are such as to make an infinitely heavier demand l than ever before upon the individual character and capacity of the officer and the enlisted man, and to make 1t far more difficult for men to act together with effect. At present the fighting must l be done in extended order, which means | that each man must act for himself and at the same time act in combination with others with whom he Is no longer in the old-fashioned elbow o-elbow touch. Un- | der such conditions few men of the | highest excellence are worth more than l many without the special skill which is only found as the result of special train Ting applied to men of exceptional physique | and morale. But nowadays the most val
 uable fighting man and the most difficult | to perfect Is the rifieman, who is also a | skillful and daring rider.
 The proportion of our cavalry regiments | has wisely been increased. The American | cavalryman, trained to maneuver and fight with equal facility on foot ana on | iiCi otDuSh ID LIit DcSl pe LII SOluleT TOT l general purposes now to be found in the world. The ideal cavalryman of the pres | ent day Is a man who can fight on foot | as effectively as the best infantryman | and who Is in addition unsurpassed in tn, care of his horse and in his ability tC fight on horseback.
 A general staff should be created Al for the present staff and supply depart ments, they should be filled by detail. | from the line, the men so detailed re turning after while to their line du. I ties. It is very undesirable to have the | senior grades of the army composed oi | men who have come to fill the positions
 by the mere fact of seniority. A system | should be adopted by which there shall
 be an elimination. grade by grade, of | those who seem unfit to render the best I service in the next grade. Justice to the | veterans of the civil war who are still | In the army would seem to require that | in the matter of retirements they be given by law the same privileges accorded to | their comrades in the navy.
 1 The process of elimination of the least | fit should be conducted in manner that would render 1t practically impossible to | apply political or social pressure on behalf | of any candidate, so that each man may
 be judged purely on his own merits. Pres | sure for the promotion of civil officials I for political reasons Is bad enough, but I | half of officers of the army or navy. Ev-
 cry promotion and every detail under the | War Department must be made solely | with regard to the good of the service | and to the capacity and merit of the | man himself. No pressure, political, so- l cial, or personal, of any kind, will be | permitted to exercise the least effect | and if there is reason to believe that such l pressure is exercised at the instigation of | the officers concerned, it will be held tc | initiate against him. In our army we | cannot afford to have rewards or duties | distributed save on the simple ground that those who by their own merits are | entitled to the rewards get them, and | that those who are peculiarly fit to dc
 the duties are chosen to perform them. l Every effort should be made to bring the army to a constantly increasing state | of efficiency. When on actual service nc work save that directly in the line oi | such service should be required. Tn, paper work in the army, as in the navy should be greatly reduced What is need ed Is proved power of command and ca pacity to work well in the field Constan
 care Is necessary to prevent dry rot il
 the transportation and commissary de | partments
 Our army is so small and so muci
 scattered that 1t is very difficult to giv,
 the higher officers Gas well as the lower
 officers and the enlisted mem chano, to practice maneuvers in mass and or
 a comparatively large scale. In time oi need no amount of individual excellence
 would avail against the paralysis which l would follow inability to work as a CO., | herent whole. under skillful and daring
 leadership The Congress should pro-
 yoke means whereby it will be possible