234 
ARMY VETERINARY' DEPARTMENT. 
but they use three-fourths of these men where their work is 
utterly ineffective, because they are denied the rank that is abso¬ 
lutely essential to effective service. For instance, the veterinarian 
may say that a certain operation should be performed and that it 
is necessary. Notwithstanding the skill and learning the veter¬ 
inarian may have, and notwithstanding the fact that he may have 
-devoted years of study to his profession, a second lieutenant can 
say to him, “ You cannot perform that operation,” and that 
would settle it. While this may not be frequently done, yet it is 
a military fact. It is a military fact that the usefulness of the 
veterinarian in our army depends largely on the opinion that the 
officers, and especially his colonel, have of him. It is a very dis¬ 
agreeable experience to have a new colonel every three years, 
and to be placed on a period of probation with that colonel to de¬ 
termine whether or not you are a well-qualified veterinarian. 
Every three years a new colonel comes, and you must prove to 
him that you are a qualified man, and every time a change of 
officers occurs the experience is repeated. The service has been 
improved in the armies where veterinarians are commissioned 
largely by the fact that the veterinarian has conferred upon him 
an official status, which, in turn, gives him a different social 
status. 
In other words, it gives him entree to official society, and 
officially they meet their officers on a plane of social equality, 
and that gives the veterinarian an opportunity to cultivate a 
more wholesome relationship with his officers, and an opportun¬ 
ity to carry out their wishes to better advantage. So that of¬ 
ficially there is no reason why the veterinarian should not be 
commissioned, and, from the standpoint of economy, if you give 
the veterinarian the pay of an officer, why not give him a rank 
commensurate with the pay he receives? If you pay him this 
amount of money in order to get better service, why not get 
your full money’s worth and put these men in charge of the 
work they should do—work that is now being done in a way by 
amateurs ? 
Now, there is a well-grounded prejudice in the army against 
the non-combatant corps, and there is a belief that if the medical 
corps and all the other corps of non-combatants were put in the 
same condition to-day that we are in there would be opposition 
in the War Department to commissioning them. A combatant 
officer does not like to see the same rank conferred upon a non- 
combatant. That feeling* certainly exists among combatant 
