The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-10-30
STANDING ARMY IS
 NATI9N'S SAFEGUARD
NECESSITY AND WAT0H AGAINST NATIONAL DISASTER AND
 HUMILIATION.

Major General Ainsworth in His Second
 Annual Report says That There is
 No Likelihood Of the Canteen BeInx
 Restored-He Deprecates the Interest
 of the People in the Soldier and Calls
 for the Relentless Punishment of
 the Deserter-with Better Pay En-
 nstments Would be Greater and De
 sertIons Less.
 Washington, Oct. 29. Major General F. c. AinsWorth, the military secretary. In his second annual report devotes considerable attention to assertions from the army, and says:
 Many remedies have been proposed. but none seems to be worthy of very serious consideration.
 Those who know how the canteen came to be abolished he states, fare not hopeful of it's restoration: there is no likelihood of any such increase in the soldiers pay as will offset the greaterinducements offered in civil pur- suits; the comforts and even Iuxuries that are furnished to enlisted men in our service are even now criticised by some as being not only extravagant but injurious in their effect on men whose real business is to march and fight, encountered with few comforts, and no luxuries, and the discipline and instruction to which the soldier is now subjected are not likely to be relaxed in future.
 f'Our people" the report says, "have little real interest in the army in time of peace, and from the earliest days of the republic have been accustomed to look upon it as a more or less un- necessary institution that may be par ca down with safety whenever a de- mand for entrenchment of public ex- penses arises. Enlistment in the army in time of peace is not unconmonlv regarded as evidence of worthlessness on the part of the recruit, and deser- ton in such time is looked upon as nothing more culpable than the breach of civil contract for service. The deserter suffers little or no loss of caste for his offense, and is seldom without friends and sympathizers to shield him from arrest, and to inter- cede in his behalf in the comparative ly rare event of his falling into the hands of the military authorities.
 It is safe to predict that assertion from the army will continus ta he exz cessive until there shaif nfS5: f;s si ,5, radical change of public sentiment to-; ward the army, and until the deserter shall come to be regarded as the crim- inal that he is, transgressor of the laws There is no reason to look for such change of sentiment in the near future, and there are some who believe that. the change will never come until our people shall have learned throSgh national disaster and humiliation that the effective maintenarlce Of an arrny of professional soldiers is absolutely essential to the preservation of the national honor and life and that the trained and disciplined troops of modern enemy cannot be withstood by hastily organized armies of untrained or half trained oivilians.'
 General Ainsworth says the actual strength of the entire military estab- lishment June 30 last was $500 officers and 55,4SS enlisted men in the regular army, 26 officers and $50 enlisted men in the Porto Rico provisional regiment of Infantry, and 10S officers and 5,O39 enlisted men in the Philippine scouts, making a total of 3, ,934 officers and 6S,- 022 enlisted men. The maximum strength of the regular army, not in- cluding the hospital corps is now fixed by executive order at GOATS enlisted men.
 The losses in the regular army during the fiscal year were;
 Officers killed in action or died of wounds, disease, etc, 24; resigned or discharged, 20; dismissed, 13; deserted, 3; retired, 59; total, 119.
 Enlisted men killed in action or died of wounds, disease. etc. BIT; discharg- ed upon expiration of term of service, 22,254; discharged for disability, by sentence of court-martial and by order, 9,460; deserted 6,53S; retired, 1S9; to- tai, 3S,S1S.