Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-04-29
SUMNER CAMPS FOR GUARDS
Training Schools in Which Young Men
Learn TO Be Soldiers.
NEED OF EXPERIENCE PROVEN BY WAR
what Nebraska Has Done and what
May BE Accomplished ~ Con-
Eress Provides the Money
for Expenses.


Pending in congress is a bill appropriat-
ing $4,000 to be used in defraying the ex
penses of summer training camps, in
which the state troops and the regiments
Of the regular establishment shall be quar-
tered together, tho object being to train
the guardsmen in the most essential Of
accomplishments, how to be soldier In
camp. The bill is receiving the en-
thusiastic support of the military experts
of the country, but its passage is not
looked upon as a certainty.
During the week a soldier who served
with tho First Nebraska through the
Philippine campaign. said: when We
reached Manila and went into action, we
had never been taught the first thing about
what are generally looked up as the most
essential things a soldier should know. how
to cook and how to shoot" The regiment
had been drilled in marching and the
manual Of arms. II knew all the evolu-
tions, of squad. platoon. company, bat
TALON, regiment and division, but 1t did
not know how to cook it's food. and had
no instruction whatever in target practice.
The wonder among experts has always
been that the army made so good a show
ing 1t did. II was bitter experience
for these young men, but they mastered
the art of cookery and to some extent Of
shooting accurately at long ranges. and
brought home from the Philippines all the
glory Of a first-class regiment. It is de-
sirable. though. that the next time troops
are sent out that they will not go under
such handicap.
EfnOrt and Results in Nebraska.
Adjutant General Culver. who is at the
head of the Nebraska National Guard at
present, is a veteran of two wars, and
learned in the hardest of schools, actual
campaigning. the lessons he is now seeking
to teach the Nebraska Guard. His sum-
mer camps have been devoted almost ex-
clusively to the details of camp life. Some
attention has been given to the shower
side of martial life such as marches and
maneuvers, with drills and reviews as a
matter of course. But the main idea has
been to teach the officers and men how TO
make and maintain a camp; how to draw
and prepare rations, and how to conserve
the food supply, so that its full benefit
will be enjoyed by the men. It is an ad-
mitted fact that no government provides
so literally for its soldiers as does the
United States, and the ration issued for the
subsistence of the men is the best de-
signed known to science for use in our
climate. Yet, unless the regiments be
equipped with cooks competent to prepare
this food. and the men be trained in its
care, all its benefit is lost. The same is
true of the equipment of the camp as to
tentage, bedding and the like.
Camp Cobb a Model.
At Kearney last summer the condition
of the camp was insisted upon as a para
mount issue. To the regimental COM
mander General Culver left the matter of
drills and maneuvers, as we'll as the pitch
ing and care of camps, but he insisted
on rigid observance of the rules he laid
down for the sanitary and culinary con-
ditions of Camp Cobb Some ideas he had
gained in active service were introduced,
and experienced soldiers, after inspecting
the camp said they had never seen any
thing like it. The result was that the
young men who went to Kearney received
in the most impressive way possible the
most valuable of lessons, and when they
go into camp agsin this coming summer,
they will be better than ever prepared
for the work of soldier. How well the
camp was conducted along these lines is
evinced by an exert from the Official re-
port of Major George r. Cecil Thirtieth
infantry, L. S. A, made to the military
secretary, Washington, d. c., after the
camp was closed: Upon the whole from
beginning to end, 1 wish to commend
the neatness of the camps and the care
full attention to sanitation. l heard
Of a few complaints of the inefficiency
Of the rations, resulting mainly from the
inexperience of the company cooks, but
these were soon adjusted, and altogether
believe the men were well fed"
Major Cecil expressed regret that a
nf
lars was not encamped with the guard in
order that the latter might have the bene-
mt of the example 2S well disciplined
body OF then AZ camp NThe object of the
proposed summer camps is to provide for
just this deficiency, SC that the guards
men may be trained by example as well
as precept in the gentle It's of cooking
army raticns and keeping camps clean and
orderly. II is hoped that one OF the sites
for the summer camp will be at Fort Mo
brara, where conditions are ideal for the
camping of large bodies of men of all
branches of the service.
Military Training an Investment.
In connection with this topic the Army
and Navy Journal says editorially:
In balancing the score of our national
gains and losses on account of the Spanish
American war, and of the events which
nave followed II, a large item must be
AuaAGA Oh tue circuit size OF the ledger TO
represent the great increase of intelligent
interest throughout the United States in the
subject Of practical military instruction and
training. The long interval of peace proceed
ing the war of 1898 was a period of popular
Indifference to the plain lessons OF military
experience. The extraordinary expansion
OF productive enterprise, the tremendous in
crease of public and private wealth, the
spread OF education and the intense rival
rtes of peaceful competition In trade and
industry all combined 10 absorb the ener-
giles OF the people 50 completely that the
higher needs of the nation In the matter OF
defense and self-preservation were either
ignored or forgotten. The result was that
when the crisis with Spain arose the gov
eminent had 10 maneuver for months to
delay war for which II was grossly I'M
prepared. Those who clamOred for war
had only the vaRiest notion OF its REQUIRE
ments. They mistook our military resources
for military strength, with no more real
warrant for so doing than they would have
TO mistake a mass OF steel ingOts for I'm
ished rifles and cannon.
And even when the government, after de-
voting the time gained by delay TO hasty
and expensive efforts to improYise means
TO meet the emergency, finally entered upon
the campaign, II did so heavily Handicapped
by lack OF proper preparation. The United
States army as 1t entered that war was,
man for man, unsurpassed in the world; IL
was perhaps as nearly perfect in all re-
spects as any that ever took the field. But
Il was, after all, merely a skeleton army
greater one required for the work ahead.
Having failed to develop and maintain in
peace a large and efficient citizen soldiery
for lust such emergencies. strpnuOusly