The Indianapolis journal., 1903-11-01
ARMY OFFICERS FAMILIES.
The Philippine Service Raises a New
Domestic Problem.
New York Sun.

New York SUM-
Travelling to the Philippines has now be-
come quite part Of the life Of an army
officer. Under the present plan OF giving
a regiment two years In the archipelago
and four years in the States. the average
officer will make about seven trips TO the
Philippines in the course Of an army career,
between graduation at West Point and re-
tirement on reaching the age of sixty-four.
This stage of our insular policy has not
found the place in contemporary RECORDS
that its Importance warrants. Thus the
deck of every transport furnishes picture
and nurses, nursing bottles and dolls In
abundance.
One little fellow twenty months old. who
went out on recent trip of the Sherf-
dan, first saw the light in Jolo, where a
white baby proved great curiosity. he
went back to the land of his fathers by
the SueZ route, and now, sun snort OF the
age Of two. is completing his tour Of the
globe.
This little lad is destined to make these
trips back and forth many times with the
fortunes of the army. 1t is the same with
other children of the service.
Shall the officers leave their families at
home for the period of Philippine service,
as the navy people obliged to do when
they go away from home, or shall their
families share the hardships and adventures
of the journey? The domestic problem
which this question raises is often serious.
81 hear men say" wrote back an expert
enced Philippine campaigEer Of middle life
to friends in the city, that they think too
much of their families to leave them at
home. 1 desire to say that think too much
of my family to bring them with me-"
Sometimes a family gets out there to find
its head assigned to so disagreeable a place
that the wife and children have to be left to
exist by themselves in Manila, and there it
Is often about as hard to reach them as
If they were. in the States; If anything
happens to the officer his family is 10000
miles from home and home consultations.
Houses are scarce In Manila. Everything
that civilized people want is high Some
men say they cannot afford to leave their
families at home thus dividing their salary
between two establishments, but the officer
already quoted wrote that he could not at
ford to have his family with him.
The women on board a transport discuss
little else, according to reports, than the
prospects Of life in the Philippines. One
Of the stock Of conundrums of the trans
(Which looks better: Manila over the
stern, or San Francisco over the bow?'
There Is a kind Of fatalism inbred In army
service, and this, in measure pervades
wives and families as expressed In the say
ing: I'VE like to go wherever We are sent"
but back and behind all this the human
element comes into view, on close acQuaint-
ance, with its fondness for the fatherland.
There are as many answers to the do
mestic question which each order to the
Philippines involves as there are family
conditions. The small baby usually holds
the family back In the States. Manila offers
only condensed milk.
School-age children prove another strong
argument for having the family home re-
tanned in America. Some wives, however,
go out with their husbands, intending to re-
turn a little earlier than the men are able,
while many officers who now go out alone
expect their families to join them later.
The regular army officer learns to live and
to like to live in places that the generality
of people of similar culture would not con-
slider desirable. His life at home is prep
aration for Philippine experience such as
few Americans ever get.
Some officers boast Of furniture and per-
sonal effects stored In nearly every army
post from the Missouri river to the Pre-
extended to the one-hundred-and-twenti
meridian east Of Greenwich Their heavier
woolens need protection against enemies In
such a range of temperature more versatile
than the familiar moth miller Of the At
lantic coast.
Moving becomes the regular experience Of
the army family. and its children need lit
tie SchoolboOk instruction In geography,
political or physical Before the Spanish
war the terms of service at different posts
were relatively long, but the changes of the
last few years have been rapid and up
setting.
I'VE have lived in the last three years in
as many posts" is the mournful comment
of the army wife, she relates the sue
cessive changes the vicissitudes Of the serv-
Ice have brought to pass.
Prudent husbands tell or the enormous
cost of moving, and the inadequacy of the
governments allowance In mileage and
freight. Officers of the regiment which
was stationed fourteen years at Vancouver
barracks before the Spanish war, relate
that they have lived in five places since
their return from the Philippines, two
and a half years ago. Benjamin Frank
lin said that three moves were as bad as
a fire.