Show MILES WANTS A LARGE ARMY appears before the house commit tee on nill lary tary affairs washington dec 12 mal maj gen miles appeared today before the house committee on military affairs relative to the proposed reorganization of the army I 1 two bills for this purpose are before the committee one drawn by gen wiles miles and introduced by and known as the hawley bill the other in the house by mr hull at the outset maj gen miles stated the general need of increasing the army without reference to either bill ho ile said he had always favored the establishment of a fixed standard for the army the experience of the last year he said had demonstrated that the present presen tr military establishment was inadequate to maintain our position as a first class power it was necessary now to con consider bider both our military requirements at home and those in our new colonial tendencies cies cles abroad and also the rapidly increasing demands made by our seacoast fortifications the latter as far as completed require some batteries of artillery and when the entire increase in coast defenses was completed batteries would be required the war with spain had shown pretty clearly how many men would bo be required gen miles said the war required 2000 men for actual field operations at various points of these men went to manila to cuba and to porto rico these were men actually in the presence of the hostile army since then there had been reinforcements for garrisons and other purposes at tha the earne same time the gori elal pointed out the necessities at home must not be overlooked the entire frontier had been strip stripped bea of troops during the late war anscom plaines were coming in that the lives families and properties of those along the frontier were jeopardized by these conditions in particular there were fears of an outbreak in the sioux country in the absence of troops it was not desirable therefore to withdraw our forces from the frontier so as to leave them de fenceless or to invite disorder these considerations said gen miles had led him to recommend a standard of one soldier tor for 1000 population at home with native troops on a basis of two native soldiers tor for every 1000 population |