CONGRESS. (ARMY REORGANIZATION.) 



205 



and the guns are manufactured and put into 

 them, you will have to have an additional in- 

 crease of artillery. You can not get around it. 

 If you have forts, if you have guns, if you have 

 machinery, you must have men to take care of 

 them. That is all there is about it. That is 

 the increase we have made. 



" Then we have organized bands for each regi- 

 ment. Heretofore a number of the members of 

 the band have been detailed from the force. We 

 have made the bands to consist of a given num- 

 ber, and they are to be enlisted for the bands 

 and not to be taken out of the ranks, and they 

 become soldiers in the band under military dis- 

 cipline. That necessarily increases the number 

 of men nominally in the regiment. 



" With the infantry we give an increase of 1 

 major, because we create one new battalion prac- 

 tically. That gives 3 majors the regular organ- 

 ization, the permanent organization. Then you 

 have to give to the regiments of cavalry, infan- 

 try, and artillery a quartermaster, an adjutant, 

 and a commissary. They get the pay of a cap- 

 tain. That is not really an increase in fact, but 

 an increase in appearance. And then we make 

 the lieutenants the adjutants of the battalions. 

 There is an apparent increase, but practically it 

 is not, because the same officers will serve. In 

 the artillery we have given these increases; and 

 necessarily with the 14 batteries must go 14 of- 

 ficers. This increase, I think, is perfectly justi- 

 fiable, is absolutely essential. 



" W T hen 1901 comes the army drops back to 

 what? To the organization prescribed in this 

 bill. That is the organization. It is described in 

 the first part of the bill down to section 13. All 

 the prior sections relate to the permanent or- 

 ganization of the army as it will exist on July 1, 

 1901, if no additional legislation is enacted, and 

 that gives exactly the organization. 



" That makes an increase of a little over 2,200 

 in the artillery and something like between 6,000 

 and 7,000 in the infantry by the filling up of the 

 companies, a total increase up to about 10,000 

 or a little over, including these regimental bands 

 and the cooks. 



" What have we done in regard to the staff ? 

 We find that there was a law passed during the 

 last session increasing the ordnance staff by a 

 certain number of officers, and there are other 

 increases made. We made an increase in the 

 adjutant general's office and in the inspector 

 general's office at the last session, but it was 

 provided as a temporary force. After an ex- 

 amination of this matter and the number of of- 

 ficers and the duties that will be devolved upon 

 them, we thought that the increase which had 

 been made in the adjutant general's office and the 

 inspector general's office ought to be retained in 

 the permanent organization; and therefore there 

 is an increase. That is the only increase in the 

 staff. We have left the quartermasters and the 

 commissaries and the other officers when peace 

 comes just as they were before. I can see no 

 harm to come from this. When 1901 comes with- 

 out any further legislation the law brings the 

 army back to exactly what is provided for here 

 about 38,000 men, artillery, infantry, cavalry, 

 heavy artillery, batteries, and everything com- 

 bined. 



"As to the additional 35,000 men who have 

 been provided for here the provision speaks for 

 itself. We have authorized the permanent stand- 

 ing army to be maintained at 65,000 enlisted 

 men until July 1, 1901. There will be 65,000 en- 

 listed men in the regular army up to July 1, 1901. 

 How are they to be organized? The organiza- 



tion is already provided for; the whole organiza- 

 tion is provided for. Some of the troops now in 

 the service, some fifty odd thousand in number, 

 will be discharged, because they volunteered for 

 and during the war, and when peace is pro- 

 claimed they will be discharged. In fact, they 

 are being discharged very rapidly now all over 

 the country. There is a general order to muster 

 out the volunteers who were in the regular army, 

 volunteers there for and during the war, as rap- 

 idly as possible, and enlist men only for three 

 years unless sooner discharged. This will en- 

 able the President to maintain the regular stand- 

 ing army, as it is called, at 65,000 up to July 1, 

 1901, if their services are so long needed. It au- 

 thorizes him to organize a volunteer force of 

 35,000 and to officer it, and that force must go 

 out of existence on July 1, 1901, or sooner if 

 there is no necessity for their continuing in the 

 service. 



" This necessarily demands an increase of the 

 staff department during this period, because the 

 35,000 volunteers are not from the States, are 

 not officered by the States with quartermasters, 

 commissaries, and surgeons. They come in as 

 United States volunteers, and the United States 

 has to furnish them with quartermasters and 

 commissaries and surgeons and all the staff offi- 

 cers. We have here made provision for an in- 

 crease in the different staff departments or corps ; 

 and I wish to say to the Senate that I reduced 

 these down just as low as I thought the service 

 would permit. Almost every reduction was made 

 to the number I specified myself, and I am re- 

 sponsible for that part of it absolutely. I cut 

 down the staff in the rank of the officers, and I 

 cut them down in the number just as low as I 

 thought the service would permit. 



" You will observe that in the adjutant gen- 

 eral's office there are 3 assistant adjutants gen- 

 eral with the rank of lieutenant colonel and 6 

 assistant adjutants general with the rank of 

 major. In the inspector's office they are lieu- 

 tenant colonels and majors. In all the other de- 

 partments they are only majors nobody above 

 a major. I thought the most efficient officers in 

 the army would be the majors, and therefore we 

 will have an excess of them an honorable title, 

 very good pay, and I think the most efficient 

 ones will be among them. 



" When it came to the organization of the gen- 

 eral officers, I apprehend every Senator knows 

 the pressure that has been brought upon the 

 Senate for the purpose of increasing the number 

 of general officers in the regular army. We have 

 3 major generals and 6 brigadier generals. This 

 man wants an increase in the major generals, and 

 the other one wants an increase of the brigadier 

 generals. They w r ant it in order that this man 

 and that man and the other man may secure 

 appointments in the regular army. I am totally 

 opposed to an increase of the general officers of 

 the regular army, and this bill makes no increase 

 whatever in the brigadier generals or in the major 

 generals of the army. 



"Now what did we do for the volunteers? 

 Were we to turn them over to the President with- 

 out any officers 35,000 men without a brigade 

 commander and without a division commander? 

 We discussed the question, and we fixed upon 

 4,000 men as a unit for a brigadier general. We 

 fixed upon 12,000 as a unit for a major general. 

 Then we counted the brigadier generals in the 

 regular army, and we added the volunteers to the 

 regular army about 100.000 and we made pro- 

 vision for one brigadier general of volunteers and 

 regulars combined, united, to every 4,000 men. 



