resents and threatens its very existence. As this section is growing in strength through the powers of trades unions and the immense weight with which they are beginning to be credited in politics, their opposition may well be considered serious.

The experience of recruiting officers, inspectors of the national guard, and particularly of those who have examined and mustered in volunteer troops, shows that guard organizations find it necessary to accept a large number of men who, judged by service standards, are of inferior physical quality, and whom therefore the government must reject at the last moment, when they are called into service. Another large class who can and do serve well enough as guardsmen, find, when called upon for service in war, that they cannot comply with the summons, and no number of laws and regulations will prevent the necessity of excusing them. Owing to these causes, the strength of the guard, when most needed, is greatly and unavoidably diminished.

In view of these objections to the present methods of raising a supplementary force, there is a vital necessity for organizing a true reserve of men who shall have enough training to be immediately available at the outbreak of war. I am not for the first time proposing the formation of a veteran reserve, but the necessity seems to me so great that the idea and the plans for its organization should be kept constantly at the front. There is now a splendid force of trained and disciplined men, consisting of those discharged from the army upon expiration of term of service, literally going to waste for want of the attention and the small amount of legislation and expense necessary to conserve it. Under our system, since all service is absolutely voluntary, it is not possible to form from these men a compulsory reserve unless we are willing to adopt some form of conscription. Nevertheless, it seems reasonable that a large part of the men who have had from three to nine years of service and know what the army really is would voluntarily enroll themselves as members of a reserve whose exactions are but a fraction of those demanded by constant service with the colors, for a cash compensation which, though small, would be an inducement for them to keep the war department informed of their whereabouts and to be pre

pared for the few duties they would be called upon to perform between the dates of their discharge from and re-entry into active service. It is probable that a very few years would be sufficient in which to thus enroll a reserve of such numerical strength that, making allowances for all necessary deductions, it would be able to take the field with at least the strength at which the regular army had been previously maintained. Of course its members could not remain reservists the rest of their lives but, within reasonable age limits, they would have the advantage over all other reserves of having been once thoroughly trained in a system as complete as any of its kind in the world, the effect of which would never be lost upon them. With proper plans for their mobilization, stores for their equipment in readiness, and capably officered according to a rational system, they would be ready to take the field with very little delay.

Within the limits of this article it is not practicable to go far into the details of plans for the organization and handling of such a force. It will not be amiss, however, to say that its higher officers should come from the officers of the regular army, according to a fixed scheme which will keep them always in readiness and will put the seniors at the head, so that all grades throughout the army will be equally benefited. The lower grades should be filled by duly qualified enlisted men of the army, and by civilians who have received training at a military school or in in some similar manner. In this way the proper ambitions of all officers will be stimulated and the men will find themselves under officers who are fitted for command and in whom, from the first, they can feel complete confidence.

For the regular army itself, some reformation must be made looking toward keeping the various commands more nearly intact, and at such a strength that their training may be a real preparation for war service; otherwise they cannot be brought to that state of readiness expected of them. And when the critical time comes, if we are in any wise lacking, it is we who will bear the blame, no matter who may be really at fault. The wish to cut down the strength of the army to its lowest possible figure in order to produce a favorable political