516 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
are retained until their time arrives for retirement and 
pension. Were the old contract doctors kicked out to 
starve, hough many of them are non-graduates ? No; there 
are two bills before Congress at present for giving them 
direct commissions. 
Were the officers who were disabled at the termination of 
the late Civil War kicked out to starve? No; they were 
either retained, crippled and useless (as they were in great 
numbers) or compensated by pension, or lump sum of money 
down. 
There are now about fifty officers awaiting vacancies, on 
the limited retired list for pensions. Official boards have de¬ 
clared those men as being unfit for service. Why are they not 
kicked out to starve ? If a soldier of any service, be he com¬ 
missioned or enlisted, gets disabled, he is provided with a 
comfortable home, or pensioned, and frequently both. He is 
not kicked out to starve. In your last issue, you say “ it’s a 
dirty bird that fouls it’s own nest.” Don’t you think this 
homely and truthful proverb is specially applicable to this 
proposed selfish action of ignoring the present army incum¬ 
bents? By all means do as is usually done in parallel cases; 
give us the lowest grade without examination, (there are but 
a few of us) and our chances of higher grades by examination, 
if we so choose, but if we “ do stink in the nostrils ” of our 
embryonic “ principal army veterinarian and Major of Cav¬ 
alry,” then add a clause for our retirement and pension. Many 
of us are graduates of long standing, and hail from alma ma¬ 
ters second to none. But it does not seem consistent with 
fair play and gentlemanlike action to ask us to step into an 
examination room, and compete against a young graduate, 
stuffed as full as a “ Strasburg goose ” with theory. If I would 
ask any officer of five or ten years standing, to compete on 
West Point subjects with a recent graduate of that well- 
known institution, I can anticipate his reply. I took advan¬ 
tage of a visit of our Member of Congress to his home for 
the recent holidays, to sound him on the subject, and his reply 
was characteristic of an old soldier and a gentleman, and 
it was as follows: I will take good care that no bill shall 
