The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-06-01
PRESIDENT TAFT MAKES ADDRESS
 AT GETTYSBURG
CONTINUED FROM PAGE1.


 ~~~------~-~--,-------~-~ ----~--~---------~~>--- find today and frequently in the history of the country aroused on behalf of the navy. This has led to a varied and changeable policy in respect to the regu- far army At times it has been reduced to almost nothing. In 17S4 there was but SC men who constituted the regular army of the United States, and of these Battery F of the fourth artillery were 55 of them. But generally the absolute necessities in the defense of the country against the small wars, which embrace so large part of our history, have induced the maintenance of a regular force, small to be sure but one so well trained and ef- feetive as always to reflect credit on the nation.
 Plea For the Army.
 "In the war of 1872 had we had a regu- lar army of 10000 men, trained as such an army would have been. we should have been spared the humilia tion of the numerous levies of untrained troops and the enormous expense of raising army on paper of 100000 or 5000o0 men, because with an effective force of 100000 men we might have promptly captured Canada and ended the war.
 "The service rendered by the regular army in the Mexican war was far greater in proportion than that which it rem
 
 which attended the campaigns of Taylor and of Scott were largely due to that body of men. To the little army of 25.000 men that survived the civil war we owe the opening up of the entire western country. The hardships and the trials of frontier Indian campaigns, which made possible the construction of the Pacific railroads, have never been fully recog-. nized by our people. And the bravery and courage and economy of force com pared with the task performed shown by our regular troops have never been adequately commemorated by Congress of the nation.
 Added Responsibilities.
 To-day, as a result or the Spanish war, the added responsibilities of our new dependencies in the Philippine islands, Porto Rico and for some time in Cuba, together with sense of the importance of our position as a world power. have led to the increase in our regular army to larger force than ever before in the history of the country but no larger In proportion to the increased population and wealth than in the early years Of the republic. It should not be reduced.
 "The profession of arms has always been an honorable one, and under con ditions of modern warfare it has become highly technical and requires years of experience and study to adapt the of ficers and men to it's requirements. The general purpose of Congress and the American people is to have such nucle- us as a regular army that it may fur nish a skeleton for rapid enlargement in times of war to a force ten or twenty times it's size and at the same time be an appropriate instrument for accomplish ing the purpose of the government in crises likely to arise other than war.
 At West Point we have been able to prepare a body of professional soldiers well trained to officer an army and nu- merous enough at the opening of the civil war to give able commanders to both sides of that internecine strife.
 'sUpon the side of the north many of the officers were drafted to command the volunteer troops from the states, while the regular army, aggregating about 1O,- GOO at. the opening of the war, was in- creased to about 25,000 during its first year. More than half this army was engaged in the battle of Gettysburg.
 ''Time does not permit to mention the names of the heroes of the regular army whose blood stained this historic field and whose sacrifices made the union vic tory possible With my intimate knowl- edge of the regular army, their high stan- dard of duty, their efficiency as soldiers. their high character as men, l have seized this opportunity to come here to testify to the pride which the nation should have in it's regular army and to dedicate this monument to the predeces- sors of the present regular army on a field which they won undying glory and perpetual gratitude from the nation which they served.
 Deeds of VaIor.
 "They had not the local associations, they had not the friends and neighbors of the volunteer forces to see to it that their deeds of vaor were properly re- corded and the value of their services suitably noted in the official records by legislative and congressional action, and they have now to depend upon the truth of history and in the cold, calm retro spect of the war as it was to secure from Congress this suitable memorial of the work in the saving of the country which they wrought here.
 All honor to the regular army of the United States! Never in it's history has it had @ stain upon it's escutcheon. With no one to blow it's trumpets, with no local feeling of pride to bring forth it's merits, quietly and as befts a force organized to maintain civil institutions and sub ject always to the civil control 1t has gone on doing the duty which 1t was it's to do accepting without a murmur the dangers of war, whether upon the track exposed to arrows and the bullets of the Indian, on the hills and in the valleys about Santiago, in Cuba, or in tremen- dous campaigns of the civil war itself. and 1t has never failed to make a record