The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-08
The Captain.

The good or evil. veal or woe Of a
company, all depends upon the Captain,
the command officer. responsible fo-
his company. and to whom the COM
pany is responsible Like captain,
like company" Is as true as gospel and
never fails. If the captain is indiffer-
ent and careless of his duties, so with
the company. and it soon runs out. The
whole burden of the administration of
the company is upon him and IL he has
not the requisite executive ability the
result is soon felt and all Is confusion.
and soon goes to ruin. If the position
Is accepted for the honor alone, the
captain Is not honest to himself or to
the men, If. on the other hand he has
a full knowledge of his responsibility
and the determination and ability to
perform the duties of the position, he
must know that II has few rewards
and many trials AMI disappointments.
He must he willing to devote the lar
ger portion of this spare time to the
work and to make sacrifices of pleas
ure and even comfort If he wishes to
score even a moderate success.
Some men win their two bars
through local influence outside of the
company; some through influence from
regimental headquarters; some for
their good-fellowship' and personal
popularity: and some, after longer or
shorter period in the ranks and as lieu
tenants are finally elevated TO the cap
taincy.
That the latter class of men are
better fitted by experience for the po
sition goes without saying. but whe-
Their they are so by temperament is an
other question and one that only time
will answer. If the man who worked
up through the grades is willing and
able to develop himself along broad
TIVE of hun ifSfice he
will be a successful company COM
mander. But if he allows narrow pre-
JUDGE and occasional injustice. either
from severity or laxness, to govern his
actions and cloud his vision he can
never hope for any permanent success
If he does not meet absolute failure.
Every man, at the outset at least.
is DESTROYS of placing his company at
the top. To do this. he must have an
ideal set as high as possible and by
hard determined and unceasing effort
strive to reach it, The results will
begin to show in two or three years.
and then, when success seems to be
within reach. a number of the best
men drop out and part of the work
has to be done over again. This will
occur year after year and it is only
when some crucial test comes that
captain will realize his work, which
seemingly has been wasted, is bearing
fruit.
"As the captain must often times sit
in Judgment over the men of his COM
mand and as call downs and admoni-
lions must be occasionally administer
ed, he must no matter what his stand
ard of discipline, be absolutely fair
and just as 1t is possible for mere
man to be. If he have a temper, he
must learn to control 1t absolutely. and
even when the offense is of an asgra
civ trh
TO what he says and does. II is better
to err on the side of leniency than TO
he obliged to make amends for hasty
word or act or even to feel that such
amends are necessary.
AZ the very outset of his career
captain must impress upon himself that
Military Discipline means education
and instruction ninety-nine times
where it means restriction and punish
ment once. His duty then. if he wishes
to succeed. must he to educate and In
strict himself so that he may he able
to transmit his knowledge to his com
pany in such a form that it may be
readily Crashed and understood nv all v
| The ieutenants are the assistants
of the Captain and may be required
to fill his place at any time, the same
qualifications for the Captain VIII al
so apply to them. They should be re-
garded as Captains embryo and having
his full confidence the best points in
thu should he fully developed and
the be able to take. command and
carry on the Company at any time,
Personal Mention.
Lieutenant r, V. Mobry. of Co h
Bird Regiment. Birmingham, has been
elected Captain of that splendid or
ganization to succeed Captain l.. {,
Brown, resigned He has had thor
ough training under the retiring cap
tain and that he is fully competent TO
keep the Company up to its usual nigh
standard there is no DOUBT.
Lieutenant j, A. began and Colonel
f. II Graves. who is now on the Gov
errors staff as Assistant Inspector
General. reached the city last night,
from Alexander city, where they in
spocted Co II, Bird Infantry Saturday
night and concluded the inspection OF
the Alabama National Guard for 1907
Colonel Graves has been engaged in the
work of the Adjutant General in the
inspection for the past two weeks
Colonel Graves going TO the National
Guard Association at Columbia and
beng engaged since IN other import
ant matters Colonel Graves has large
r,Ui+arv axparience and he is in every