New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-25
To the Editor Of The Tribune.

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: In the writer's humble opinion, The
Tribune has scored another bull's-eye in
it's editorial of the 10th entitled "An Off
GERS Reserve"
1t must be evident TO those who know
something of the military game that these
rockies at Pattsburg "are, in effect, the
small end of a megaphope through which
his General Woods words Of military
wisdom may penetrate to the uttermost
ends of the land" II four weeks at Platts-
four years at West Point-makng due
allowance for the time devoted to scientific
and liberal studies, which most of the
Plattsburg rockies have already had
Military science is highly specialized and
in many respects, technical vocation. Per-
haps none realize this more than do our
National Guard officers who, after years
spent in practice and study, need con-
stantly to brush up and read anew in order
to pass the periodic examinations required
of them. The very business men who are
now at Plattsburg would not intrust a po-
sition in their Offices with the response
bilities of a commissioned officer to a man,
however bright, who came to them with only
a months preparation in important duties
Large corporations, such as the Pennsyl-
vana Railroad and the large electrical and
manufacturing concerns, conduct courses in
their shops in duration from six months to
four years, which many engineering gradu-
ates enter; and lucky are these men to get
a foreman's job upon completion of the
course.
The school at Plattsburg is a good thing
We ought to have more like it. But let us
not misnterpret its value. That value is
chiefly the experience these business men
will get out of it; the effect it will have in
opening their eyes to the magnitude and
seriousness of the proposition of adequate
military preparation, and through them the
dissemination of this knowledge to the public
and our legislators.
Whatever plans may be made for de-
veloping an officers reserve adequate in size
and training our first duty is unquestion-
ably to make use of what we have. There
are thousands of men with years of train
ing in the regular service and in the Ma
tional Guard-men with experience as non
CONS. and commissioned officers, who
have the qualifications, physically, mentally
and morally, to fit them for command-who
are rustng in civil life, when they ought to
be organized into a reserve, required to at
tend schools, perhaps to drill three or four
times year, given opportunity to attend
camp with the active troops and. assigned
as officers of skeleton organizations, work
ing in harmony and developing esprit de
corps. There are other thousands, dis
charged as privates, who are available as
non-coms. or priyates, who should likewise
be organized and brushed up in their duties
There is much that is attractive in mill
tary service. Men who have seen service,
who are not shirkers and come willingly,
could be moulded into very efficient skeleton
organizations. With light demands upon
their time, it should be easy to obtain
volunteers for such a reserve. The associa-
ton of men with military experience in an
organization with a common aim would
tend toward a morale that no new organza-
ton would have, and morale, Napoleon said,
is 70 per cent of efficiency. The State of
New York has new law upon its statute
books which partially meets this need. but
it refers to ex-commissioned officers alone
and does not go far enough. There should
be more comprehensive effort in this
direction, not alone in this state, but
throughout the country; that is, a national
reserve.
Your editorial also discounts the idea of
placing dependence to any extent for an
officers reserve upon graduates of those
state colleges giving military instruction
under the Morrill, land grant act and other
college students who have merely attended
the Pattsburg and similar camps.
The writer was a student at one Of the
land grant colleges some years ago., and We