Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-02-24

1NAoAhp' are IldIly
to this, no doubt; but what l state is
rCundly true. The organization thai
exists in the army is far different from
that which obtains in civil life, where
we grade all the way up. The effort
III the regular army is to grade a wide
distance between the officers and men,
and in q way to undertake to give the
impression that the officers belong TO
a higher class-that they are a differ
cnt kind Of men; and therefore you
put wide distance between them.
dignity loves distance, you know If
man is not as big as you would like,
you can place him upon a pedestal and
he will look larger; and this is some
real advantage to the man, so long as
his duties are formal and perfunctory;
the only out about it being that in
some time of stress the men will find
cut that he is not as large as he look =
ed. The best leader in the army, as
veil as out Of it, is he who stands
closest to his men, and controls them
by his superior intelligence and force
and who, while he is standing on pre-
cisely the same level as his fellows.
towers a little above the rest because
he is Il little bigger.
Now this was the attitude ordinarily
EXERCISED by the officers in the volun-
teer service, end rightly. Now AMI
then one would try to stand upon his
pedestal, but he sooner or later got
Jared off. and thereafter stood upon
the ground.
The officer who can do the best is
the man who is closest to his men. 1t
often happened, however, that the man
who held rank was not a larger man.
Sometimes an officer of inferior rank
was the only commander: and l have
known more than one instance where
a sergeant was the virtual commander
of his company. I do not think that
men in the army held their rank by
anything like so good title as men
in industrial life, or even i'll political
life, hold their positions; and l do not
think now, after the 40 years or more
that have elapsed, that the distinction
should be made. If those men who
were officers were superior men. ample
time has elapsed for them to have
made good in civil life; and if they
have, they do not much need this
larger pension. If they have not, the
pam 1lltltIlCt - llldl tItN Qua uOl
much deserve it, although | would not
push this very hard, for ill-healtln and
misfortune follow the best of men
There are three ways of expressing
our patriotism: One is by pointing
to the glorious deeds of the past An
other is, to attend to our every day
business for the common goddard
this, | suppose. is the main business
we have here before the legislature
Another way is to point to the future
and to show how things may tend
The issue is remote. We do not much
fear war in the future, and yet, | do
not know as we can say that war may
not come. If there is no danger of
war, for what purpose are we spending
Che millions that we are for a navy
1t is thought to be in cOntraventiOn OF
war, and so it may be. But if war
ever comes in earnest, behind all bat
tlcshipS and coast defences must stand
the army; and in that army the lead
ing factor will always be the indivdu-
al foctman, with a gun, and the ac-
curacy of the action should be hatch
kill and the skill to use that gun with
and as agile as himself You cannot
get that man for money alone. A war
of the future will take better men than
the wars of the past. 1t takes a bet
ter man to stand upon a skirmsh line
or in open order and to do effective.
service, than it does to stand shoulder
to shoulder with his companions. That
man is more out of sight of the Off
Ger. He must act on his OWN initia-
tive. You cannot get that man for
money alone. You must appeal to
higher motives. 1t is not the money
that moves the young men to the de
fence OF their country in time OF war
1t is not the amount that they may
some day get in pensions. that moves
them-that is out of mind of good
men.
Pensions, just and right. should be
paid; but we must get rid of the idea
that we can do all of t,?.se things with
money. In the Civil War, in the last
two years of the war. I. great wrorr
was done to the army by The volur-
tcer bounty system, wher. the states
undertook to fill their quota ~ the use
of money. They got some good men
ir that way; hut the money brought
to the front all the lower and mcr-
cenary element of society-even the
criminal elements-to the utter degre-
dation of the service. 1t was a pre-
MUM upon bounty jumping and de-
snrtion; and how much harm was done
the army, YOU younger ones little
know. If anything that l can say here
should prove to some of these younger
men ever to be of value in the future.
shall feel that I have been of some
service. Bonnties ought never to be
paid. Some of the Northern States
even opened their prison doors to men
who would enlist and thus filled the
quota Of that state. I recall with sat
lsfaction q day when six of them met
their fate on the gallows in the Ander-
sCnvilla stockadc at the hands of their
fellow prisoners. They had cost the
communities from which they came
large sums in the disorder they had
created and in the cost of their ap-
prehension, trial and punishment; and
they had caused the army into which
they went degradation and disorder
and they had caused among their fell
low prisoners q reign of terror, robbery
and murder; but they paid the bill