The Washington herald., 1913-09-28

in the textbooks were made into fetishes
by some of these men, and treated as IL
they were the ends, instead OF the not
always important means by which the
ends were to be achieved. In the Cuban
lighting, for instance, it would have been
folly for me to have taken my place in
the .ear of the regiment the canOnical
tsNt-b = position. My business was to
be here | could keep most command
over the regiment, and, in a rough-and-
tumble, sCrambling fight, in a thick
jungle, this had to depend upon the
course of events, and usually meant that
1 had to be at the front.
| saw in that fighting more than one
elderly regimental commander who un-
Willingly rendered the only service he
could render To his regiment by taking
1 - his proper position several hundred
yards in the rear when the lighting be-
gan for then the regiment disappeared
in the jungle, and, for its good fortune,
tie commanding officer never saw 1t
agai until long after the fight was over
After one Cuban fight, a lieutenant
colonel of the regulars, in command of
a regiment, who had met with just such
an experience and had rejoned uH at
the front several hours after the close
of tn fighting, asked me what my men
were doing when the fight began. / an
swered that they we're following in trace
in column OF twos. and that the instant
g sh' ting began ! deplOyed them as
skirmishers on both sides of the trail
He ans erred triumph ltly. You can't
de. men as skirmishers from column
formation to which l responded, well,
! did. and. what is more. if any captain
had made any diffiC-lty about IL | would
ave sent him to the rear" My critic
quite correct from the parade ground
standpoint.
The rresCribed orders at that time were
TO d"ploy the column first into a line of
squads at correct Intervals. and then to
give an order which, if my memory
serves correctly. ran: "As skirmishers
by the right and left fanks. at six yards,
take intervals, march" The order l real
ly gave ran more like this: Scatter out
TO the right there, quick, you, Scatter
TO the left, Look alive. Look alivev'
And they looked alive, and they scat
tered, and each took advantage of cover,
and forward went the line
Now. ] do not wish what I have said
to be misunderstood. If ever we have a
great war, the bulk of our soldiers will
not he men who have had any opportu-
nifty to train soul and mind and body so
as to meet the iron needs of an actual
campaign. Long continued and faithful
drill will alone put these men in shape
to begin to do their duty, and failure to
recognize this on the part of the average
man will mean laZiness and folly and
not the possession of efficiency. More
over, if men have been trained to believe
for instance, that they can ''arbitrate
questions Of vital interest and national
honor" if they have been brought up
with labbiness OF moral fiber as well as.
fiabbiness of physique, then there will
be need of long and laborious and faith
ful work to give the needed tone to mind
and body. But if the men have in them
the right stuff, it is not so very difficult
Getting Food.
At San Antonio we entrained for Tam
pa. In various sociological books by
authors of Continental Europe there are
jeremaids as TO the way in which service
in the great European armies, with their
minute and machine-like efficiency and
regularity, tends to dwarf the capacity
for individual initiative among the officers
and men. There is no such danger for
any officer or man of a volunteer organi-
Zation in America when our country
with playful light-heartedness has
pranced into war without making any
preparation for ii. 1 know no larger or
finer field for the display of an advanced
individualism than that which opened be-
fore us as we went from San Antonio to
Tampa, camped there, and embarked on
transport for Cuba. Nobody ever had
any definite information to give us, and
whatever information we unearthed on
our own account was usually wrong.
Each of US had to show an alert and
not overscrupulous self-reliance in order
to obtain food for his men, provender
for his horses, or transportation of any
kind for any object. One lesson early
impressed on me was that II 1 wanted
anything to eat it was wise to carry it
with me; and il any new war should
arise. / would earnestly advise the men
of every volunteer organization always
to proceed upon the belief that their
supplies will not turn up, and to take
every opportunity Of getting food for
themselves.
A Problem In Transportation.
Tampa was a scene of the widest con-
fusion. There were miles of tracks
loaded with cars of the contents of
which nobody seemed to have any def
mite knowledge. Gen. Miles, who was
supposed to have supervision over every
thing, and Gen. Shafter, who had charge
of the expedition, were both there. But
thanks to the fact that nobody had had
any experience in handling even such a
small force as ours-about 1900 men,