Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-09
Our Working Army.

In the current news is an item
worthy the attention Of those who are
inclined to look upon the United States
Army as purely military and, there
fore, more or less useless institution. A
battalion of Army engineers has just
been dispatched to Nicaragua, for the
purpose of surveying the route of the
proposed new American canal through
that country. A total personnel Of
some three hundred officers and men
will be engaged in that arduous task,
amid tropical conditions, for the better
part Of the next three years. Congress
appropriated s15o,o00 for the expenses
of this American expeditionary force Of
peace.
The annual budget of the republics
land forces ranges around 100000 900.
That figure strikes the imagination at
first blush as a high one, considering
that the United States military estab-
lishment, including 6,4o0 Philippine
Scouts, accounts for full strength of
only $4,000 officers and men. But
when, as Army leaders point out, it is
realized that some $l30,000,000, or
roundly one-third of the Army's funds.
is allocated to non-military purposes,
its appropriation assumes its real d.
mension, viewed purely as national de-
Tense expenditure.
The Army is intrusted with the adj
mlnlstration Of the Panama Canal
Zone. 1t has charge, through its Corps
OF Engineers, of the country's rivers and
harbors, an immense job in itself. It
conducts the Mississippi River Commits
sion, permanent establishment wholly
unrelated to present flood control af-
fairs. 1t has recently been called upon
to establish California. Debris Com
mission. 1t is the costs of all these diver
sified civilian duties which make heavy
inroads on the Army's $40O 900 900
budget, mistakenly thought by so many
citizens to be devoted wholly to sol
diering."
There Is, happily, the best. of reasons
for assuming that President Hoover's
call upon the general staff for a sur
vey Of the Army's expenditures con-
templates no arbitrary economies
merely for economy's sake. Mr.. Hoover
has not the remotest intention of starv-
ing the military branch in any useful
direction. His expressed purpose is
merely to insure that q dollar of Army
expenditure shall produce a dollars
worth of demonstrated Army need. The
need established, the Commander in
Chief may be expected to be as ardent
an advocate of providing the where
withal as any other man.
No one who knows the Army from
the inside believes that extravaganza
and waste stalk through 1t. On the con-
trary, as visit to almost any post in
the country, including elite posts at
Washington's own door, will prove,
Spartan economy and simple living are
the invariable and conspicuous rule.
Here and there. no doubt, are subordi-
nate establishments which are more
decorative than unitarian, and per-
haps more political than anything else.
But 1t is always within the prerogative
of Congress to lop off such superflui-
ties.
At Washington Barracks next month
the Army Relief, an interservice asso-
citation, will hold its annual carnival
for the purpose of raising money to
sustain the widows and orphans of
officers and men. It will probably sur
prise, if 1t does not shock, many citi-
zens to know that in this five-billion-
dollar country of ours 1t is necessary to
have recourse to private bounty to pro-
vide few tens Of thousands of dollars
for women and children left dependent
by our soldiers who pass on in the
workaday harness of peace.