New-York tribune., 1902-06-12

the last few years have shown that in the future
/ the unit will not be the regiment nor yet the
company, but the unit will be the individual
/ man If he does not know how TO shoot. how
to shift for himself, how both to obey orders and
to accept responsibility when emergency
comes when he won't have any orders to obey;
If he is not able to do all of that you had better
I have him out Of the army. In a battle here
after each man is going TO be to q COnSidera ble
officers will have to take much OF the response
| bility that in former fell their seniors,
and many of the enlisted men will have TO do
most OF their work without any supervision of
any officer. The man will have to act largely
alone. and If he shows a tendency to huddle
up to some one else his usefulness is pretty
near at end. If he is nervous so that he
wants to feel the touch of elbows, he had better
be out Of the battle; and you officers. if you are
going to do we'll. have got to learn how to per-
form the duty which is essential The task
is harder one. and you want to face that task.
You want to realize that more than ever before
the honor or the shame OF the country depends
upon the high average Of character and
pacity of the officers and enlisted men, and that
! high average Of character and capacity in the
enlisted men can to large degree only be OBJ
tanned through YOU the officers: and that you
have got to devote your time in bringing up to
the standard the fighting efficiency of the
under you, not merely in doing your duty SC that
you can't be called to account for failure to per
fern It, but doing it in way that will make
each man under you able to perform his
Now, l want You to weigh what 1 say. for if
you take only half Of it you will invert what I
say. 1 found that in my regiment the best
man was the man who had been In the regular
army IN actual service out in NarteTn cam
paigning the plains That Il been a
good man in the regular army g plains
he the best that ! Aold of
and on the other hand. if he h IN time
Of peace couple of years in m gar
TfSOn, where he practically had Il 90 - nothing
10 do outside of the parade grounds and bar
racks. or if he had been in ordinary National
Guard regiment, that of two things were
true-if he had understood that he had only
learned > per cent OF war he was that ) per
cent better than any else and that was
big advancement, and If he had thought that
he had learned the other 81 per cent he was
worse than any one else. daughter and ap-
plause) l recoliect perfectly man who had
been a corporal in the regular army. a young
fellow who had Joined us, and he was apparent
y convinced that in nicely a parade
ground for manpuvrng, and il was almost
impossible to make him turn his attention to
teaching his men so that they could do the best
lighting when the occasion Now. gentle
men. / don't intend TO preach upon the per-
formance Of your duties here, but 1t is your
special business TO learn them. 1 do ask you
remember the difference in the military pro-
fesson from what it has been in the past. and to
remember continually that soldership does not
consist Of excellence on parade grounds but
efficiency in actual service in the field; and that
the usefulness and really great usefulness of the
parade ground and barracks work comes in its
being u-ed. not as an end put as one Of the ele-