Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-09-22

Thurston, the assistant superintendent of
schools. who has supervision over the
cadet corps. the work of the captain de-
termnes the ultimate fate of his COM
pany on competitive drill day.
Everything depends upon the captain,
said Thurston yesterday. The wrong
kind of a captain can simply demoralize
his officers and men alike. The right kind
Of captain controls them, inspires them.
gets hard work out of them by working
hard himself, and teaches a thorough
mastery of the tactics by knowing the tao
tics himself. He must have character
and personality and enthusiasm. He must
have a good knowledge of human psy-
chology, SO that he can tell which of his
men must be driven and which need only
personal encouragement Such captain
as this Will turn out a company which
will prove formidable competitor on any
field"
Once the captain has laid the founda-
ton for effective work on the part of his
officers the company begins it's first drills
These last for an hour and quarter and
occur twice a week over the whole school
year. The work of the first month bears
little resemblance indeed to the final eX-
ercises on the great occasion which forms
one of the features of high school life in
Washington. For the first six weeks half
an hour of every drill period is devoted
to system of vigorous setting-up eXer-
cises consisting mainly of arm and leg
movements. such as the raw 'cruity per-
forms when first taken into the regular
army. Then for the remaining hour and
a quarter of the period the drill sergeants
put the squads through the facings teach
the right and left hand salutes. dress the
line and perfect the men in the forward
and backward march and in the simpler
mOvamnnfc &c 1r;l ic til
on in single file and the drill unit is not
the group, but the man.
After month and half or so the set
ting-up exercises disappear from the drill
perOo and squad movements are intro
duced. The squad is the basis of the
company; perfect squad organization
insures perfect company organization,
and the life of the squad is the corporal,
who. thus considered. is a very important
officer. The squads are drilled in two
files. the enlisted men who have seen
service in previous years being placed in
the front rank. For weeks the squads
are practiced on three evolutions-squad
right, squad left, squad right and left
about-till they are letter perfect. Never
theless. knowing that the squad is the
basis of all maneuvers the good captain
keeps coming back to these three simple
evolutions till the end of the year, in
order that he may maintain absolute per-
lection of squad movement
=
About December 1 the guns are given
out, though nothing much is done with
the manual of arms till after Christmas,
in order that squad work may have the
precedence. After the midwinter holi-
days the squads are united and drilled in
company formation. Now commences the
hardest most disagreeable and most I'M
interesting part of the whole years work
the practice in the manual at arms.
Over and over and over, for thousands of
repetitioEs. the men are put through a
score or SO of simple movements, singly
and in squads. This work is all held in
doors, in the school corridors, or in the
arnlory If the school happens to possess
one, and the confined space in which the
men execute their positions to 'tenton, to
port arms. order arms, present arms and
the rest only add to the tedium of the
whole performance.
As soon as any proficiency is shown the
captain establishes series of individual
competitive drills, under which two men
are set drilling against each otner till one
man makes a mistake, when he is moved