The Green Forest tribune., 1910-03-18

be trained for several years before they are competent to command regu- lar troops.
 The authorized number of cadets at the military academy is 533, but the actual number in attendance at the school falls far below this mark, the de1ciency being due to the fact that there are always existing vacancies caused by the failure of candidates to report or to pass the entrance exam inaions, or by the elimination of ca dets who are found deficient in their studies or their conduct"
 Admit Training Is Needed.
 Members of congress have come to the conclusion, perhaps reluctantly, for it is not the layman's way of think ing ordinarily, that training is needed for the military profession just as much if not more than it is needed for any other profession. So it is that they are trying now to devise some means of keeping the ranks full at West Point so that the army can be of1icered at all times by trained sol d1ers and so that the necessity of giv- ing up four or five years time to the training of civilians appointed as sec ond lieutenants may be done away with.
 The object of the senate bill is to increase the number of cadets by a slight modification in the method of making appointments. The military committee in it's report on the sub ject says:
 Changes Proposed.
 Tt is proposed that the members of congress and the president, who rec commend and make appointments, shall have the right to a second ap- pointment as soon as their appointee shall become a member of the gradu- ating class after three years service at the academy. In other words, those recommending or making cadet ap- pointments will each have one cadet at the academy during three years and two cadets during every fourth year"
 If this bill shall become a law the cadet corps will be given the strength in numbers which it is the intention of the present law that it shall have The difficulty is that the present law does not take into consideration the fact that many boys who receive appoint meIts do not for some reason or other show up at the academy, and that some of the members of congress neglect their duty in the matter of appointing cadets. It is known that in some congressional districts hun dreds of boys want to go to the mili- tary academy, while in some others no candidate appears, and as result the congressman not having any applica- tions filed, forgets all about the matter and his district goes without repre- sentation.
 Speaker Cannon May Retire.
 While no word has come from Speaker Cannon to clinch the matter, the men who are closest to him per sonally and politically seem to feel that before very long now the speak CT will say that he does not intend to be a candidate again for re- election as presiding officer of the house. Even if the speaker does is. sue a statement to the effect that he will give over any further ambition to succeed himself, it is certain that he will be a good deal of a factor in the matter of choosing his successor.
 Some time ago it was the feeling in Washington, and it was touched on in, frnr1 that if the Republicans should carry the next house they must of necessity choose a speaker from the middle west. This was the feeling for some time and it was founded on knowledge of conditions as they existed at that time. Now it seems that there has been some change of heart on the part of a good many of the organization Republicans.
 Eastern Man May Be Speaker.
 There seems to have been stealing over the so-called regulars of the house the thought that an eastern man now has a good chance to be chosen speaker if the Republicans succeed in carrying the house. and that in choosing an easterner his sup porters will have the votes and the moral support of a good many of the members who are called Insurgents.
 Present Speakers Position.
 If MT. Cannon shall declare that he is not to be a candidate to succeed at the polls next fall, he can be, as has been said good deal of fac tor in the matter of choosing his sue cessor It is only human nature that the speaker should prefer to be sue ceeded by a man who will do as he has done, a man who believe in the rules of the house as they exist and who is not given to what the speaker calls radicalism There are some men Sn the east, in the middle west and 9 few in the far west who probably will stand by the speaker, and it may be that they can decide in caucus the question of the successorship, but ii they are not numerous enough to dc this they can by throwing their votes one way or the other control the choice as between two men.
 The supposedly wise ones among Republicans say that if the next house shows a party majority the man who will succeed the speaker will be a moderate" and that probably the rules will be amended to some de gree, but not nearly enough to suit the insurgents and yet enough per haps to displease some of the regulars who think that the rules are just what they should be.
 Of course all this speculation about