district, appointed by the Secretary of War; that each geographical section of the country should be an Army Corps District, and that each Army Corps District should be commanded by a general officer of the Army; that units should be organized as provided for in the statutes for the Army, but with additional Battalion Staff officers, musicians and Hospital Corps men; that increase of strength should be effected by recruiting, not by consolidation of existing organizations; and that present organizations should not be disbanded unless notably inefficient, the present designation of organizations being retained as far as possible.

(2.) That line officers should retain their present rank until discharge, resignation or death, and that their successors should be promoted under the same system of lineal promotion prescribed for the Army; but that no officer should be promoted until he had passed an examination before a Board of Examination, or produced evidence that he had attended the sessions of a military school of instruction for a prescribed period. Line officers of the lowest grade, but no other officers, should be elected. No person should be eligible to election who has not served at least three years in the National Guard or Volunteer Reserve, or one year in the Army or Volunteer Army, in time of war.

II. Congress should provide so liberally for the support of the National Volunteer Reserve that the civil organizations of the National Guard could be abolished, and that all officers and men should receive pay for services performed by them, in peace as well as during active service.

General Schofield has said that in presenting any plan for the modification of the National Guard the first and indispensable step is to "dispel the illusion that it can be done cheaply." Competent and careful officers have estimated that the smallest sum for which an effective Volunteer Reservist can be armed, equipped, drilled, disciplined and maintained for five years is $500. But the average sum per man allowed in recent years by State and National Government was $24, or a total in five years of $120. The Guard could not have existed upon such a meagre appropriation, had it not long ago devised a plan whereby it was enabled to force its officers and men to make up the deficiency, both in appropriations for purely military expenses and for other expenses which had to be met in order to attain popularity.

The system of organizing civil associations, the membership

of which was identical with that of the military company or regiment, was devised. These civil organizations levied dues and fines and occasional assessments. From these dues, fines and assessments deficiencies were made good. State laws in many places make payment of dues and fines compulsory. This system, while effective, is unmilitary and destructive of discipline. It places enlisted men on an absolute equality with officers in civil meetings, allows them to dictate the policy of the company, elect disbursing officers, control expenditure of funds and in meetings freely criticise the acts of superiors; it obliges officers to see that the revenue of the company is collected, and makes them debt-collectors, compelled to sacrifice all dignity in demanding and enforcing payment; it compels officers and men to pay a tax and, in case men do not pay, compels officers to make up the deficiency, rather than discharge enlisted men who are out of employment or unable to pay; it sometimes results in the selection of officers who are able to "support the position," rather than of officers distinguished for ability or soldierly qualities.*

The Guard can never become an effective Reserve until these civil associations, with all their machinery and exactions, are abolished and the Guard put upon a strictly military basis. This could be done were the means to pay all lawful and necessary expenses provided by the Government, and were officers and men paid a small sum for their services, regiments, troops and batteries being allowed to deduct from such pay fines for delinquencies, and turn these fines over to their respective disbursing officers. The pay need not be large in amount, and it is not proposed that this peace-pay should be allowed in time of war. The allowance of such pay would in every way elevate and stimulate the Guard. It is not that the Guard desires, or needs so much, the amount paid; but the payment would be regarded by officers and men as evidence of the appreciation of their services.

By deducting from the pay any fines for delinquency, the tendency of enlisted men to absent themselves from drills without good cause could be corrected. Absences are now frequently excused upon the theory that a man makes nothing by attendance and is often caused great loss. But if a man is paid for attendance and can suffer loss only if absent, he cannot complain if the sum

These observations do not apply to several wealthy, and self-supporting organizations in New York City, Massachusetts and the South.

2

due him is withheld. Were peace-pay allowed, each officer and man would have on pay day a sum to his credit against which could be charged the cost of military property lost or ruined while in his possession. This is not the case at present. Thousands of articles of uniform and equipment are annually lost or ruined, and the loss is usually borne by the unhappy officers, who often replace new missing articles with second-hand articles.

Bad as it is, the system of civil organizations is founded on a sound principle-that of no taxation without representation. Under the present system of payment of the expenses of the Guard, each soldier is a partner with the people, and naturally asks a partner's rights. It is perfectly just that he should have them. But it is preposterous that such principles should be at the very basis of a military system. There can be no proper discipline, no subordination or respect for superiors, in an organization in which the commanding officer and the private are business partners in the business of carrying on that organization.

III. The National Guard, reorganized as a National Volunteer Reserve, should be composed of Permanent Forces, stationed at schools of instruction, and the Active Reserve stationed at armories; and facilities for obtaining practical and theoretical instruction should be provided by the Government at schools of instruction, and staff colleges, through instruction by officers of the Army detailed to specific organizations, and through field service and manœuvres.

The Secretary of War should establish, in each military district, at a post or fort of the United States, a School of Instruction for officers and non-commissioned officers. To each school should be attached a corps of instructors detailed from among the officers or retired officers of the Army, or Volunteers. The officers at such schools, together with members of the Reserve specially enlisted for the purpose, should form a Permanent Corps at each school.

Appointment as a student at a School of Instruction should be made a reward of merit. The Adjutant-General of a Military District should annually publish in General Orders the names. of officers and men appointed students for the ensuing year, adding commendation of the manner in which the appointees have performed their duties. No person should be appointed who has not been enlisted or commissioned for at least one year, and the

preference should be given to those with the longest service to their credit. After accepting appointments, students should be entitled to wear on the sleeve of the uniform coat the coat-ofarms of the United States or some other distinguishing badge. Students and members of the Permanent Corps at each school should, while in attendance, receive the same pay as officers and men of the Army; provided that they should be paid for each day of actual attendance, not by the month or week. Men of the permanent force should remain permanently at the fort or post, but students should not be required to attend continuously.

Staff Colleges may be considered a necessity. The staff officers of the Guard have generally been considered less efficient than those of the Line on account of lack of facilities for practical training in service. A Staff College should, therefore, be established at the Headquarters of each Military District, or at designated Military Posts of the Army in each Department. All staff officers of brigades, divisions and Army Corps of the Reserve should be required to attend at a Staff College for a stated period in each year.

All officers of the Army at present acting as Instructors in Schools or Military Colleges, and such other officers as the Secretary of War may detail, should be detailed to duty with the reorganized Guard, as instructors and officers. It is the experience of National Guard and Volunteer officers that the time spent in instructing boys in "Military Academies" or cadet organizations has been time wasted. The best results can be obtained by assigning officers to duty with specified organizations, not with the Headquarters of a State or District. Officers of the Army can acquire a knowledge of the special needs and temperament of volunteers only by taking an active part in the drills, instruction and social life of specific organizations.

Officers of the Army detailed to regiments of the Reserve, and appointed by the colonels thereof upon regimental staffs, would obtain an intimate knowledge of their regiments and would have authority to make suggestions, correct faults and instruct officers and men. There should therefore be attached to the staff of each regiment of the Reserve an officer, or retired officer, of the Army designated "Inspector," and with rank and pay during service with the Reserve of one grade higher than his Army grade.

Such Inspector should preside at Schools of Instruction and VOL. CLXX.-NO. 522.

47

Boards of Examination, should give to the officers of the regiment in council his criticisms of drills and the condition of books and papers, and should be permitted to suggest any drills, lectures or courses of instruction which in his judgment are necessary. He should have quarters assigned to him in the armory of the regiment to which he is detailed. He should be assisted by non-commissioned officers of the Army designated "Sergeant Instructors" and attached to the non-commissioned staff. These should serve as armorers and janitors of armories.

There should be little difficulty in doing away with the present system of Camps of Instruction and substituting therefor practice marches and field manœuvres. The drill schedule might, with advantage, include, in May, out-door drills on Saturday afternoons, by company, companies marching to and from drill-ground; in June, practice marches from Friday afternoon to Monday morning, by battalion; in July, practice marches of one week by regiment; in September or October, field exercises by brigade.

Practice marches would not only be of great practical value in familiarizing officers and men with road-marching, but would also, by familiarizing the people with the soldiery, aid recruiting and foster a spirit of pride in our Volunteer Reserve. It is an almost invariable experience that, when a body of troops, Regular or Volunteer, marches through outlying country districts in this country, their march soon becomes a sort of triumphal progress, and that recruiting in those districts is stimulated.

IV. The National Guard reorganized as a Volunteer Reserve should not be required to perform military service without the boundaries of the United States; nor should any Army Corps be required to perform service without the Army Corps District in which it is raised.

Members of the National Guard are business men and professional men dependent upon civil occupations for their livelihood and that of their families. It is wholly unreasonable to expect them to sacrifice their business interests, and inflict hardships upon their creditors and families by abandoning business to go with their organizations to different points in America or foreign countries. A citizen-soldier has never been required or expected in any land, at any time, to do this; but here a member of the National Guard is goaded by a perverted public sentiment into doing something which common sense tells him is wrong.