The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-05-11
Regular Army as a Career.


Colonel Fl. o. Heistand, Adjutant
General of the Department of the East,
at recent address delivered before
the Ohio Society of New York, discuss
ed the regular army as career. He
said: The service offers no opportu.
nifty for the young man who is anxious
to amass fortune or become a force
in commerce. The salary and allow,
ances in the lower grades are greater
than young men could earn in civil life,
but the elder officers are not nearly so
well paid as are men who make sue
cess in other professions. On the other
hand, achievement in no other profes
sion is so frequently followed by politi-
cal preferments as in the army Nine
of the twenty-six Presidents of the
United States, owed their choice direct
| iy to their achievements in the army
| Col. Heistand then described the
| various forms of service in the army,
| in which men may follow their partic-
ular bent very largely. As to the
| frequently heard charge that the army
is an aristocratic institution, he replied
| that it is recruited directly from the
| people. Few of the officers have any
| wealth, and if they had, there is slight
/ opportunity to make use of it. Most
of them come from the great middle
classes. "The military profession re-
quires such unique qualities of self re-
straint, subordination to authority, and
minute attention to duty that / do not
| advise any one to enter it with any
i other motive than devotion to it as a
life work, and who bring to it enthu-
siasm which has no other aim than that
of efficiency and progress. They must
be willing to quit every pleasure, sever
every tie, to meet its requirements.
Without it the life will grow monoto-
nous and irksome''
Addressing himself to the opportuni-
ties offered by the army to bright
young men, he declared that they com
pared favorably with those offered by
some of the socalled learned profes
sions, for physical and mental de
velopment, and with pay, comfort and
leisure time vastly beyond that enjoyed
by the average civilian or those in the
civil or classified service. of the Gov
ernment.o
i He denied the idea that prevails il
many parts of the country that the
soldier is forced to do mental labor
about the posts, although he conceded
that certain tasks must be performed
! for sanitation, etc, and when it is i'm
, possible to secure civilian labor, the
privates must do them. The mora
atmosphere of the army he said. ii.
good. The rank and file, taken as Z
whole, are self-respeeting. well behaved
and contented men, worthy of the re
spect and esteem of any community.
Il In this connection he paid his re
speets to a theory that has grown III
of late, that the army is sort of
reform school, to which judges ma,
sentence evil doors. Men of bat
character are not wanted; if the char
: acter is known, they are never enlisted
if bad man is enlisted. he is not re
tanned long, unless be reforms. an,
? makes his habits conform to servie,
d requirements.
9 Passing on to the practical advan
tages of the army, he told of the oppor
tunities offered for education aud tech
meal training. As to pay, the loves
rate is $15 month. The highest j
= 500, for chief musicians. master cleo
tricians and sergeants of the band i
, their seventh enlistment. The pay o
> all grades is increased twenty per cen
; during war time and for service in NOS
| places outside of the United States
, The average saving on the clothing al
y lowance is sos per enlistment. an
travel pay and an allowance on dis
]. charge is also granted ssUpon til
e completion of thirty years service tn
Il soldier may retire on three-qaarter
pay and allowances. The retired par
counting everything is from $3.50 t
$50 per month IF the soldier enlist
at the age of 81 has Ave or six wear
of FOREIGN service. which counts donbl
q for r~+irement. he may retire at til
=. age of 10. still a Young, vigorous MAJ
~ If he has saved his pay and allowanc
with ordinary prudence he should the
have an income of s30.25 a montl