The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-10-19
ARMY AND NAVY
CONTINUED from page nine.J

a. It is proposed, experimentally,
to abandon posts which have cost in
the neighborhood of two hundred mil
lions for barracks that will cost an ad-
ditional twenty-five millions. This lat
ter sum is here computed on the sup
position that the quartering of the
troops will cost as much, or more, in
a city than in post, since the troops
will require the same space per man,
the same sanitary conveniences, the
same stables, guardhouses, etc, and
the cost of land for buildings and drill
grounds will be much higher. 1t is
evident that the immediate Economy
of such a project will not be appre-
ciated by a cheeseparing congress.
The economy is problematical, even,
in the long run.
%. Municipal authorities will not
look upon the scheme with favor. In
Europe police and soldiers are prac-
tically under the same jurisdiction.
Here The police and county authorities
are liable to run counter to United
States authority, making friction and
a dangerous antagonism between sol
diers and police. The citizens, too,
object to the presence of idle men, and
property in the neighborhood Of the
barracks will surely diminish in value.
"3. 1t will not be to the improve
ment of the soldier to move him from
the country to the city. In many coun-
try posts practical prohibition reigns.
In a large city the soldiers infest the
saloons in the neighborhood of the
barracks. They are also brought into
contact with the lowest classes of
population. Their constant associa-
ton with persons of the lower classes,
sharing in their habits of thought, will
render them much less reliable in deal
ing with popular disturbances or with
anarchism. There also will be much
more drunkenness and immortality
than at present 1t is probable, too,
that the question of sanitation will be
much more difficult
a. The training of the soldier will
probably suffer Whatever some may
say, it is distinctly a disadvantage to
have to march long distances to drill
grounds, since the time taken in
marching to the drill ground and
return must be deducted from
the time otherwise available for
training. Marching is good training,
but it is easy to have too large pro-
portion of it, and other things may
be more important. The government
will not only have to buy expensive
drill grounds, but it will have to aid
in keeping up the roads leading there
! to. In this, as in other ways, 1t VIII
be found that much of the fatigue la
Dor, so much deplored at present in
our country posts, will be reproduced
in the city. 1t is probable that, owing
to the great expense, inadequate drill
grounds will be purchased.
90 There is no question but that
the high standard of our officers is due
largely to the present post life and its
social side. This social side must, by
the new scheme, be abandoned. The
officers will live in widely separated
parts of the city, mingling with differ
ent sets, their families hardly knowing
each other. The officer with rich
wife will live in fashionable quarter
the officer with a poor wife in a shah
by cottage or fiat, and the bachelor
will be turned loose to seek his Level
Regimental spirit will be at a mini
mum. During the night and large POI
ton of the day the officers will not y
at hand, as they are now, to attend t.
matters in their company. The nor
commissioned officers, not the oihcerS
will be the important factors in tn
company.
"These are some of the objection
that can be advanced 70 this new pre-
iect. There are many others, In cor
clusion, it may be stated that tn
change proposed amounts to revolt
ton. and that its effects on the arm
can not be with certainty predicted
European precedents are not Away
valid in America"
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WORTH TWENTY TIMES ITS cos