The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-03-06
ARMY EFFICIENCY.

Adiutant General Wedgwood reports
on his return from the East, that there
| is a movement to increase the strength
of the army and that the new militia
bill before Congress has for its pur.
pose the joining of the militia of the
in case of emergency and the training
of the militia with that end in view.
II is a good purpose but diflicurt cf-
fectively to carry out; for the militia
is called 10 the colors so infrequcntly,
and for such brief pemods, that the
tage of acting with the field meets Of
the regular troops, is too superficial to
make real soldiers.
II must be confessed. however. that
in the higher exercises of military
training, the regular troops are about
as deficient as the militia. A writer in
the World s Work for February shows
that the army lacks conference, has no
practice in maneuvers on 4 large scale;
that no officer has ever had so much
in actual field maneuvers; that regi-
ments are seldom ever found intact.
being scattered from post to post in
detached service; that the soldiers are
kept on civilian duty at ''hitching
posts instead of being trained for
service; and that major generals rare.
ly have actual command Of troops, but
are for the most part made merely
transmittcrs Of department orders 10
the several army fragments that are
scattered throughout the area en-.
braced within their military jurisdic-
tions.
In the March number the writer
takes up the needless but frightfuI
waste of men and money in every
American war because Of our military
system Of uuprcparcdness; and he
shows the ineffectivencss OF unframed
militia as an overwhelming reason why
we should keep tho regular army up TO
high state of efficiency by military
exercises, and by having at hand and
in practical use. the means of mobility
of sending large forces to any part
of the country where their presence is
needed. In illustration Of the idea
he means to convey, he shows that any
mn litary nation could place at given
point on our cast or west coast force
far greater than we could rally to meet
it, quicker than we could get even
such troops we have available, to that
point His contention is that we
should have an army well trained on
modern military lines, concentrated so
as TO give its officers the opportunity
10 learn how to handle large units of
the force without blunders and DELAYS
that are inevitable without actual field
practice, and also have plenty Of prac.
tically tested transportation facilities
so that any number of available men
could be sent to any desired place
without friction or delay. Either this. |
he says, or We should disband our army
as r useless sham.
While, Of course, the country will 90 |
to no such extreme as disbandinp the |
army, there can be no doubt of the |
strength of the presentation of the |
case by the writer,of those articles. 1t |
is all true, as he says. The army should |
be strengthened and enlarged. II |
should be concentrated, and should ex-
ercise itself in field maneuvers on a
large scale. It's officers should. in ius
tice to themselves and TO what the
expects of them, have the
practice which will make them adepts
In handling whole brigades and di-
visions, so that in real crisis they
would be able unermugly TO do it TO
such perfection as is given skilled hu.
manity to do
1t is quite true that unframed troops
are of little value in actual war. 1t
ls true that In military affairs as in
other affairs of skill and technical ac-
1uirement, practice makes perfect, and
practice, failure is the natural
outcome. Our army officers should be
Afforded the opportunities to practice
he game Of war which is now denied
hem, and a radical reform in this di.
'ection is imperative
But the cost? Look at the enormour
expense that would result were the
lrmy enlarged and trained as suggest,
"a! AS to this. we venture to say that
he cost might easily be largely reduced
wen with AN army much greater than