As regards the Army I call attention to the fact that while our junior
officers and enlisted men stand very high, the present system of
promotion by seniority results in bringing into the higher grades many
men of mediocre capacity who have but a short time to serve. No man
should regard it as his vested right to rise to the highest rank in the
Army any more than in any other profession. It is a curious and by no
means creditable fact that there should be so often a failure on the
part of the public and its representatives to understand the great
need, from the standpoint of the service and the Nation, of refusing to
promote respectable, elderly incompetents. The higher places should be
given to the most deserving men without regard to seniority; at least
seniority should be treated as only one consideration. In the stress of
modern industrial competition no business firm could succeed if those
responsible for its management were chosen simply on the ground that
they were the oldest people in its employment; yet this is the course
advocated as regards the Army, and required by law for all grades
except those of general officer. As a matter of fact, all of the best
officers in the highest ranks of the Army are those who have attained
their present position wholly or in part by a process of selection.
The scope of retiring boards should be extended so that they could
consider general unfitness to command for any cause, in order to secure
a far more rigid enforcement than at present in the elimination of
officers for mental, physical or temperamental disabilities. But this
plan is recommended only if the Congress does not see fit to provide
what in my judgment is far better; that is, for selection in promotion,
and for elimination for age. Officers who fail to attain a certain rank
by a certain age should be retired--for instance, if a man should not
attain field rank by the time he is 45 he should of course be placed on
the retired list. General officers should be selected as at present,
and one-third of the other promotions should be made by selection, the
selection to be made by the President or the Secretary of War from a
list of at least two candidates proposed for each vacancy by a board of
officers from the arm of the service from which the promotion is to be
made. A bill is now before the Congress having for its object to secure
the promotion of officers to various grades at reasonable ages through
a process of selection, by boards of officers, of the least efficient
for retirement with a percentage of their pay depending upon length of
service. The bill, although not accomplishing all that should be done,
is a long step in the right direction; and I earnestly recommend its
passage, or that of a more completely effective measure.
The cavalry arm should be reorganized upon modern lines. This is an arm
in which it is peculiarly necessary that the field officers should not
be old. The cavalry is much more difficult to form than infantry, and
it should be kept up to the maximum both in efficiency and in strength,
for it can not be made in a hurry. At present both infantry and
artillery are too few in number for our needs. Especial attention
should be paid to development of the machine gun. A general service
corps should be established. As things are now the average soldier has
far too much labor of a nonmilitary character to perform.