OCR Text |
Show BETTER EXPERIENCE NEEDED. It was certainly'Jiigb. time thaU there should lib a mobilization of a considerable consider-able portion of tub American army, in order to give the troops, that practice and training of working together in masses thnt would bo necessary in case they were called into tho field for actual ac-tual war. Heretofore the army has been scattered into small fragments, it being be-ing rather Hard to find even as much as a regiment entire at any one post, to say nothing" of brigades or divisions. The mobilization, by President Taft of a division on the Mexican frontier was followed by an order dividing tho country coun-try into divisional departments, in which it is supposed that tho troops .will frequently be brought together for maneuvers by divisions and under command com-mand of general officers, who will thore-by thore-by be givon cxperioncc in handling troops in masses, au oxperienco which at present no general officer on the active ac-tive list has had. The need of this practice is reinforced by nccouuts which como from the border as to maneuvers and exercises ordered, which are distressing to those who' can realize what the reports mean. Here is an item, for instance, from tho Boston Bos-ton Globe, telling of the march, that was ordered merely, it apponrs, on the whim of some general officer whose inexperience inexper-ience and whose lack of consideration and common sense carried hayoc into the ranks: Tho disastrous result of that 100-mllc hike of tho army from Galveston to Houston and back again may hint to the bureaucrats thaL an army is no automobile. Some .160 soldiers were prostrated pros-trated by tho heat before the end of the first lap was reached; thousands wero so lamed by the macadamized roads that they could bnrely walk; officers were cursed and hissed as tliey rode past the column of troops, and the cries for water were pitiful. To march a brigado 100 miles when tho thermometer ranges up to 100 does not serve as "training" which will make the men better- ablo to do it another time. And if It was done to see whether the men could stand it or not, the question could have been answered an-swered without starling at all. They couldn't, whether In maneuvers or In actual war. Tt is one of the great trials of bodies of soldiery when an officer is in command com-mand of (hem who will give orders for such maneuvers as that, maneuvers that are utlferlj' useless, from the military point of view, and that aro designed to test tho endurance and stamina ot troops, but which shojuld never bo put into prnctico except under favorable conditions, or under the keenest stress of dire mlcessity. A commander who will order a march like that in such weather, weath-er, i5j in fact, a more disns,trous foe to his country that would be tho force against which the campaign is directed, for such , orders doplete the ranks and destroj' the military efficiency of the command. It would socm as if thero ought to have beeu somebody in authority author-ity in Texas able to stop the execution at that kind of oppressive and wholly needless order; for doubtless a considerable consider-able number of those mou who were prostrated by heat will not recover their vicor during tho whole term ol their enlistments. Tt is a disastrous mistake to order such foolish stunts as that: and the instance of this march should be held up in army circles as a warning and example of what ought not, to be. done. |