Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-12-08
MILITARY AFFAIRS.
Executives Views on the Army, the
 Navy and the National Guard.

GACCutANeS ViOWS VII 'ho All my, VhS
 Navy and the National Guard.
 AS regards the army, I call attention
 to the fact that. while our junior off
 cers and enlisted men stand very high,
 the present system of promotion by
 seniority results in bringing into the
 higher grades many men of mediocre
 capacity who have but short time to
 serve No man should regard it as his
 vested right to rise to the highest rank
 in the army any more than in any oth- CT profession. It Is a curious and by no means credltable fact that there
 should be so often failure on the part
 of the public and its representatives to
 understand the great need from the standpoint of the service and the na-
 tion of refusing to promote respectable
 elderly incompetents. The higher
 places should be given to the most de
 serving men without regard to senior ity At least seniority should be treat
 ed as only one consideration. In the
 stress of modern industrial competi- ton no business firm could succeed If | those responsible for its management
 were chosen simply on the ground that
 they were the oldest people in it's em-
 ployment Yet this Is the course advo-
 cated as regards the army and re Quired by law for all grades except
 those of general officer AS a matter ,P f,o4 oil of hos ofE ;,>
 highest ranks of the army are those
 who have attained their present posi-
 tion wholly or in part by process of selection.
 The scope of retiring boards should
 be extended so that they could con
 slider general unfitness to command for any cause in order to secure a far
 more rigid enforcement than at pres ent in the elimination of officers for
 mental. physical or temperamental disabilities. But this plan is recon
 mended only if the congress does not see fit to provide what in my judg-
 ment is far better-that is, for selec- tion in promotion and for elimination
 for age. Officers who fail to attain q certain rank by certain age should
 be retired. For instance. if a man
 should not attain field rank by the time he is forty-fve he should of course be placed on the retired list General officers should be selected as
 at present and one-third of the other
 promotions should be made by selec- ton, the selection to be made by the president or the secretary of war from n list of at least two candidates pro
 posed for each vacancy by a board of
 officers from the arm of the service from which the promotion Is to be
 made A bill is now before the con
 gress having for its object to secure , the promotion of officers to various grades at reasonable ages through
 process of selection, by boards of off
 cers, of the least efficient for retire
 ment with percentage of their pay
 depending upon length of service. The bill although not accomplinhing all that should be done, Is long step In the right direction. and earnestly
 recommend its passage or that of &
 more completely effective measure. The cavalry arm should be reorgan-
 ized upon modern lines. This is an arm in which 1t Is peculiarly neces-
 sary that the field officers should not be old The cavalry Is much more difficult to form than infantry, and it
 should be kept up to the maximum both In efficiency and in strength, for 1t cannot be made in a hurry. At , too few In number for our needs. Especial attention should be paid to development of the machine gun. A general service corps should be estab
 lished. AS things are now the aver age soldier has far too much labor of
 a nonmilitary character to perform. National Guard.
 Now that the organized militia, the
 national guard, has been incorporated with the army as part of the nation
 al forces it behooves the government
 to do every reasonable thing in its power to perfect its efficiency. It should be assisted in It's instruction and otherwise aided more literally than heretofore. The continuous serv- ices of many well trained regular of 0cers win be essential in this connec- ton. Such officers must be specially trained at service schools best to quail fy them as instructors of the national guard. But the detailing of officers
 for training at the service schools
 and for duty with the national guard
 entails detacbing them from their reg fments which arc already greatly de pleted by detachment of officers for assignment to duties prescribed by
 acts of the congress.
 A bin is now pending before the
 conHsss creating . Asmber of extra sdAcsfs h tbs army. which, if passed,
 as it eaght to bs, win snabts more of hcers to be trained as instructors of
 national guard and assisnsd to that
 duty. In case of war 1t VII bs sf the utmost importance to hsve . large number of trained omcers to use fo- turning raw lsyies into good troops. There should be leSislation to pro-
 vide a complete plan for orRaniz-
 ing the great body of volunteers be- Ai1d the regular army and national