Arizona republican., 1908-12-09

our SHlpS Tn every port they visited.
 The Army.
 As regards the army 1 call atten-
 ton to the fact that while our junior
 officers and enlisted men stand very
 high, the present system of promo
 tion by seniority results in bringing
 into the higher grades many men of
 mediocre capacity who have but a
 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 other profession.
 It is curious and by no means cred
 itable fact that there should be so
 often a failure on the part of the public and its representatives to un- derstand the great need, from the
 standpoint of the service and the na- 1 tion, of refusing to promote respect able, elderly incompetents The higher places should be given to the most deserving men without regard to sen
 iority; at least seniority should be i treated as only one consideration. In the stress of modern industrial com | petition no business firm could sue ceed if those responsible for it's man agement were chosen simply on the | SAOuiiO blAbt lliNS were tile OlutSl ,people in its employment; yet this is l the course advocated as regards the army, and required by law for all grades except those of general of | ficer. As a matter of fact, all of the best officers in the highest ranks of the army are those who have at ! tained their present position wholly or in part by process of selection.
 The scope of retiring boards should be extended so that they could con | sider general unfitness to command for any cause, in order to secure a far more rigid enforcement than at present in the elimination of officers for mental. physical or temperamental disabilities. But this plan is recom- mended only if the congress does not see fit to provide what in my judg- ment is far better; that is, for seec- ton in promotion, and for elimina- tion for age. Officers who fail to attain a certain rank by a certain age should be retred-for instance, if man should not attain field rank by the time he is 45 he should of course be placed on the retired list. Gen eral officers should be selected as at present, and one-third of the other promotions should be made by selec- tion, the selection to be made by the president or the secretary of war from list of at least two candidates proposed for each vacancy by a board of officers from the arm of the serv- ice from which the promotion is to be made. bill is now before the congress having for its object to se- cure the promotion of officers to various grades at reasonable ages through a process of selection, by boards of officers, of the least eff cient for retirement with q percentage of their pay depending upon length of service. The bill, although not ac- complaining all that should be done, is n long step in the right direction; and l earnestly recommend its pas sage. or that of a more completely effective measure.
 The cavalry arm should be reorgan- ized upon modern lines. This is an arm in which it is peculiarly neces- sary that the field officer 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, lOl IL Ndll llOl bt llldlt III d Hurry AL present both infantry and artillery are too few in number for our needs. Especial attention should be paid to development of the machine gun. A general service corps should be es- tablished. As things are now the average soldier has far too much la for of a non military character to perform.
 The National Guard.
 Now that the organized militia, the national guard, has been incorporated with the army as a part of the ra- tional forces, it behooves the gov ernment to do every reasonable thing in it's power to perfect its efficiency. It should be assisted in it's instruc- tion and otherwise aided more fiber ally than heretofore. The continuous services of many well trained regular officers will be essential in this con nection. Such officers must be espe- cially trained at service schools best to qualify them as Instructors of the national guard. But the detailing of officers for training at the service schools and for duty with the na- tional guard entails detaching them from their regiments which are al ready greatly depleted by detachment of officers for assignment to duties prescribed by acts of congress.
 A bill is now pending before the congress creating a number of extra officers in the army, which if passed, | as it ought to be, will enable more officers to be trained as instructors of national guard and assigned to that duty. In case of war it will be of the utmost importance to have a large number of trained officers to use for turning raw levies into good troops.
 There should be legislation to pro vide a complete plan for organizing the great body of volunteers behind | the regular army and national guard | when war has come. Congressional assistance should be given those who i are endeavoring to promote rifle prac- tice so that our men, in the services or out of them, may known how to use the rifle. While teams repre- senting the United States won the rifle and revolver championships of the world against all corners in Eng land this year, it is unfortunately true that the great body of our citi zens shoot less and less as time goes on. To meet this we should encour- age rifle practice among schoolboys,