As a matter of fact, the National Guard is what we would term the Militia of America, and is, therefore, subject to the President, and not to the State Government. At present the Army consists of seventy thousand regulars, which is only one man for every thousand of the population-an absurdly small proportion. A city of ten thousand inhabitants, so to speak, represented by ten soldiers! Well may it be said that "there can be no menace to the republic as a standing army of proportion so meagre, when compared to the total population." Inasmuch as a large proportion of this force will always be serving abroad, the number of regulars in the country is little, if any, larger than under the old régime. America will have to improve her system of mobilization. The war against Spain was declared April 21, 1898. The first expedition which left San Francisco for the Philippines did not leave until May 25. This force consisted of five companies of regulars and two full regiments of volunteers. It did not boast a single field gun, horse, mule, or cart. A month later it was followed by two other expeditions, totalling 11,000 men, yet the entire force was without transportation, save such as could be raked and scraped together on the islands. Four months passed before Manilla was attacked, August 13, the entire American Army then consisting of two regiments and two volunteer batteries of field artillery, parts of four regiments of regulars, and eight regiments of volunteers. Imagine such a situation if America had been fighting a first-class power! Since the close of the Civil War general officers have never had under their command at one time more than a few thousand men. Consequently, they knew nothing of tactics on a large scale. The new mobilizing arrangement will give brigade and divisional commanders large bodies of troops to handle, and so enable them to conduct a campaign under conditions approaching reality. The charge for this annual mobilization will naturally fall upon the National Government, that is to say, the encampment expenses. It now makes an annual appropriation for the benefit of the militia force, and it could exercise influence upon the States which refuse to send their troops to the encampment by depriving them of their share in the appropriation. Or the system under which the appropriation is allocated might be changed, and a fixed sum paid to the State for every soldier present at the national encampment. But this would hardly be necessary-it would suffice that the National Government requested the co-operation of the State authorities: they would not dare refuse. That with an army may come militarism and a military caste is not unlikely in America, but for serious reasons it will never attain the ascendency it has got in France. The Americans have always been fond of military distinction; from the Army they draw the chief store of the titles with which they ornament their not always distinguished personal nomenclature. Such titles are not always a guarantee of military distinction or even of military service on the humblest scale. The Governor of a State may appoint any private citizen to his entourage, and the appointment carries with it a colonelcy. I do not profess to know how generals are made, but not long since I addressed a letter to a prominent newspaper editor in Boston whom a few years ago I knew as Colonel T. In his absence my letter to the colonel was replied to by his secretary, who informed me somewhat coldly, I thought, that General T. would make an appointment on his return to town. Conscious that the Cuban War had intervened, I subsequently remarked to a mutual friend that that conflict had enabled the colonel to show his real as distinguished from his fictitious military prowess. "Cuban War!" exclaimed my friend. "Why, T. hasn't been within a thousand miles of Cuba. He is a general honoris causâ." I cannot close this chapter without some reference to the pension system. No other nation in the world has dealt so liberally and ungrudgingly with the survivors and widows and orphans of its wars. In the last thirty-three years it has paid to its pensioners the stupendous sum of half a billion sterling, in addition to three millions in fees for the medical examination of applicants and fifteen million sterling for other expenses of administration. The grand total in dollars is 2,327,021,872. In brief, the nation pays away thirty millions sterling annually for pensions, and the war with Spain has added several thousand further names to the pension-roll. Pension attorneys have educated the public mind to believe that service in war means a pension, whether the soldier is disabled or not. Consequently, all who went into the Spanish War were familiar with the systems of its large appropriations. The pension agents swarmed in the volunteer camps, and "thousands of well-meaning lads, who had just passed a rigid physical examination to enter the Army, made all their arrangements for pensions before performing any duty." How debauching must such a system be! The number of volunteers who saw service in battle during the war with Spain is paltry enough, yet 27,047 claims for pensions were filled up to June, 1900. CHAPTER X THE NEW SHIPPING AMERICA has lately been making great efforts to possess a navy and a mercantile marine. Popular interest began to centre in the navy, thanks largely to the writings of men like Captain Mahan, who began, in 1897, to preach the gospel of armaments, the need of aggressiveness, and the danger of a policy which looks inward and never outward. Some time before the war with Spain, and the ensuing naval victories, and since then, the popular demand for batttleships has been strenuously approved by the President and acceded to by both Houses of Congress.' 1 A return was issued in August, 1902, showing the fleets of Great Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Italy, America, and Japan, distinguishing the different classes of vessels built and building. The following table gives a summary of the comparative results: |