The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-12-03

Righteousness in this country than
| defamation against the worship OF
Baal or Astaroth- 1t is defamation
against anon-existing evil, one which
has never existed in this country. and
which has not the slightest chance OF
appearing here. We are glad to help
in any movement for international
peace. but this is because we sincerely
believe that it is our duty to help all
such movements provided they are
sane and rational. and not because
there is any tendency toward mill
tarism on our part which needs to be
cured. The evils we have to fight are
those in connection with industrialism,
not militarism. Industry is always
necessary, just as war is sometimes
necessary. Each has it's price, and
industry in the United States now
exacts, and has always exacted, a far
heavier tool of death than all our wars
pHt together. The statistics Of the
ended June 80. 1906. the last con-
tanned in the annual statistical report
of the Interstate Commerce commits
sion, show in that one year a total OF
10s,S24 casualties to persons, of
which 1858 represent the number of
persons killed. In that wonderful
hive of human activity. Pittsburg, the
deaths due to industrial accidents in
1906 were 919. all the result of acct
dents i'll mills, mines or on railroads.
>
safe to say that the deaths due to in
dustrial accidents aggregate in the
neighborhood of twenty thousand n
year. Such record makes the death
rate in all our foreign wars utterly
trivial by comparison. The number of
deaths in battle in all the foreign
wars put together, for the last century
and a quarter, aggregate considerably
less than one years death record for
our industries. A mere glance at
these figures is sufficient to show the
absurdity of the outcry against mill
tarism.
But again and again in the past our
little regular army has rendered ser
vice literally vital to the country, and
Il may a any time have to do so in
the future. Its standard Of efficiency
and instruction is higher now Than
ever in the past. But it is too small
There are not enough officers; and it
is Impossible to secure enough enlisted
men. We should maintain in peace
ia irly complete skeleton of large
army. A great and long-continued
war would have to be fought by vol
unteers. But months would pass be-
fore any large body of efficient volun-
teers could be put in the field, and our
regular army should pc large en- ,ugh
to meet any immediate need. In par
ticular it is essential that we should
possess a number of extra officers
trained in peace to perform efficiently
the duties urgently required upon the
breaking out of war.
The Medical Corps.
The medical corps should be much
larger than the needs of our regular
army in war Yet at present it Is
smaller than the needs Of the service
demand even in pe3ca. The Spanish
war occurred less than ten years ago.
The chief loss we suffered in 1t was
by disease arn"ng the regiments which
never left the country. At the mo-
No I'm
pressed by this fact; yet seemingly 1t
has already been forgotten, for not
the slightest effort has been made to
prepare medical corps of sufficient
size to prevent tho repetition of the
same disaster on a much larger scale
if we should ever be engaged in SER
ious conflict The trouble in the
Spanish war was not with the then
existing officials of the war depart
ment; Il was with the representatives
of the people as a whole who, for the
preceding thirty years. had declined
to make the necessary provision for
the army. Unless ample provision is
now made by congress to put the
medical corps where 1t should be put
disaster in the next war is inevitable,
and the responsibility will not lie with
those then in charge of the war de-
partment, but with those who now de-
cline to make the necessary provision.
A well organized medical corps,
thoroughly trained before the advent
of war in all the important admins
trative duties of military sanitary
corps, is essential to the efficiency of
any large army, and especially of a
large volunteer army. Such knowledge
of medicine and surgery as is pos
sessed by the medical profession gen
orally will not alone, suffice to make
an efficient military surgeon. He must
have, in addition. knowledge of the
administration and sanitation of large
field hospitals and camps. in order to
safeguard the health and lives Of
men intrusted in great numbers to
ing before the congress for the
reorganization of the medical corps;
its passage is urgently needed.
But the medical department is not
the only department for which in
creased provision should be made
The rate of pay for the officers
should be greatly increased; there is
no higher type of citizen than the
American regular officer. and he
should have a fair reward for his
relatively even greater increase in the
pay for the enlisted men. In especial
provision should be made for estab b.
fishing grades equivalent to those
of warrant officers in the navy which
should be open to the enlisted men
who serve sufficiently long and who
do their work well. Inducements
should be offered sufficient to en-
| courage really good men to make the
army a life occupation. The prime
needs of our present army Is to Sc
| cure and retain com petent non-com-
| missioned officers. This difficulty rests
! fundamentally on the question of pay.
The non-commissioned officer does not
| correspond with an unskilied laborer;
he corresponds to the best type Of
| skilled workman or to the subordinate
official in civil institutions. Wages
have greatly increased in outside oc-
equations in the last forty years and