River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1907-12-05
of the shipyards in which our battleships
must be built.
Asks Increase in Pay
for Army officers and Men.

urges that our regular military organi-
cation be kept up to the highest possible
standard of efficiency, and says:
1.-THE medical corps should be much
greater than the needs of our regular
army in war. Yet at present it is small
er than the needs of the service demand
even in peace. The Spanish war oc-
Cured less than ten years ago. The
chief loss we suffered in it was by dis
ease among the regiments which never
left the country. At the moment tEs
nation seemed deeply impressed by this
fact; yet seemingly it has already been
forgotten, for not the slightest effort
has been made to prepare medical
corps of sufficient size to prevent the
repetition of the same disaster on
much larger scale if we should ever be
engaged in. a serious conflict.
"But the medical department is not the
only department for which increased pro-
vision should be made. The rate of pay
for the officers should be greatly in
creased: there is no higher type of citizen
than the American regular officer, and he
should have a fair reward for his adj
mirable work. There should be a rela-
lively even greater increase in the pay for
the enlisted men. An especial provision
should be made for establishing grades
equivalent to those of warrant officers in
the navy, which should be open to the
and who do their work well. Inducements
should be offered sufficient to encourage
really good men to make the army life
occupation. The prime needs of our pres
ent army is to secure and retain compe-
tent noncommissioned officers. This diff
Guilty rests fundamentally on the queS-
ton of pay. The noncommissioned officer
does not correspond with an unsllilled Ia
borer; he corresponds to the best type of
skilled workman or to the subordinate
official in civil institutions. Wages nave
greatly increased in outside occupations
in the last 40 years and the pay of the
soldier, like the pay of the officers, should
be proportionately increased. The first
sergeant of a company. if a good man,
must be one of such executive and adj
ministrative ability, and such knowledge
of his trade, as to be worth far more than
we at present pay him. The same is true
of the regimental sergeant major. These
men should be men who had fully res
solved to make the army life occupa-
ton and they should be able to look for
ward to ample reward; while only men
properly qualified should be given
chance to secure these final rewards. The
increase over the present pay need not
be great in the lower grades for the first
one or two enlistments, but the increase
should be marked for the nOncommis-
stoned officers of the upper grades who
they intend to stay permanently in the
army, while additional pay should be
given for high qualifications in target
practice.
Among the officers there should be
severe examinations to weed out the
unfit up to the grade of major. From
that position on appointments should
be solely by selection and 1t should be
understood that a man of merely aV-
erage capacity could never get beyond
the position of major, while every man
who serves in any grade certain
length of time prior to promotion to
the next grade without getting the
promotion to the next grade should be
forthwith retired"
President Sees Need of
Largely Increased Navy.
The president asks for continuous
increase in the navy and asks present
congress for appropriations for four
new battleships, and says:
1--WE need always to remember that
in time Of war the navy is not to be
used to defend harbors and sea-coast
cities; we should perfect our system of
coast Notifications The only efficient
use for the navy is for offense. The
only way in which it can efficiently pro-
tect our own coast against the possible
ing that foreign navy. For defense
against a hostile fleet W hich actually
attacks them, the coast cities must de-
pend upon their forts, mines, torpedoes,
submarines and torpedo boats and de-
stroyers. All of these together are eff
ficient for defensive purposes, but they
in no way supply the place of thor
oughly efficient navy capable Of acting
on the offensive; for parrying never yet
won a fight. 1t can only be won by
hard hitting, and an aggressive sea-go-
ing navy alone can do this hard hitting
of the offensive type But the forts
and the like are necessary so that the
navy may be footloose. In time OF war
there is sure to be demand, under pres
sure of fright, for the ships to be scat
tered so as to defend all kind of ports
Under penalty of terrible disaster, this
demand must be refused. The ships
must be kept together. and their OBJ
jective made the enemies fleet III
Notifications are sufficiently strong, no
modern navy will venture to attack
them, so long as the foe has in exist
ence q hostile navy of anything like
the same size or efficiency. But unless
there exists such navy then the forth
fcations are powerless by themselves
to secure the victory. For OF course
the mere deficiency means that any
resolute enemy can at his leisure COM
D1n6 all MS FORCES upon one punt with
the certainty that he can take It,
Gives Reasons for Despatch
OF Fleet to the Pacific.
"JJnti1 our pattle fleet is much larger
than at present it should never be split
into attachments SO far part that they
could not in event of emergency be
speedily united. Our coast line is on
the Pacific just as much as on the At
lantic. The interests of California,
OreCon and Washington are as en-
phatically the interests of the whole
union as those of Maine and New York,
of Louisiana and Texas. The battle
fleet should now and then be moved to
the Pacific just as at other times 1T
should be kept in the Atlantic. When
the isthmian canal is built the transit
of the battle fleet from one ocean to
the other will be comparatively easy.
Until it is built / earnestly hope that
the battle fleet will be thus shifted be-
tween the two oceans every year or
two. The craftsmanship on all our
ships has improved phenomenally dur
ing the last five years. Until within
the last two or three years it was not
possible to train a battle fleet in squad
ron maneuvers under service conditions,
and it is only during these last two or
three years that the training under
these conditions has become really eff
fectiye. Another and most necessary
stride in advance is now being taken.
he battle fleet is about starting by
the Straits of Magellan to visit the
Pacific coast. Sixteen battleships are
going under the command of Rear Ad-
miral Evans, while eight armored
cruisers and two other battleships will
meet him at San Francisco, whittier