seniority. Recently a register of meritorious or distinguished service has been instituted by a departmental order, with the announcement that officers on this register will be given the preference for details in the future. So we are moving. But we should move carefully, and in correcting existing defects in the machine we must avoid the introduction of new and greater defects that may injure the machine still worse in the end. Thus far the law, the order, and the announcement contain one very striking peculiarity. In every case where an officer is thus selected it is to detail him away from the line as a reward for merit. If this system be adopted as a permanent one, it must eventually result in detailing away from the line its best officers. It holds out tacitly the idea that a proper object of a line officer's ambition is to get away from the fighting line, which bears the real brunt of war, into a nice detail with absence of danger, and with easy work and good society. That idea would destroy any army in the world if it came to actuate a majority of its officers.

The logical place to reward a line officer is in the line. The fitting and proper way to reward him is by advancement. Give his ambition an outlet, and he will be striving by honorable service for further promotion. That kind of service is what the country needs. That spirit is the true spirit of the real soldier.

Yet changes should be made with great care. Any attempt to break down the law of lineal promotion, any departure that might leave a loophole for the introduction of the pernicious spoils system into the army, and that might permit political influence to determine any question of promotion, would be far worse than any existing defect. The fear of this caused a feeling of relief when the proposition of one-third of all promotions for merit failed in Congress. Army officers recognize the correctness of the merit idea in theory; but it was asked: "How are such selections to be made? Who is to be the judge? If the President, he must rely mainly upon the recommendations made by people he knows, and they are usually politicians. If by the Secretary of War, then we are usually dependent upon the same principle, with the additional possibility of departmental favoritism." Yet somebody must exercise the power of selection if such a system is adopted. Hence, many believed it better to face the ills we have than to incur the possibility of worse ills by making a breach in this one dike that the army has for its protection.

It must be recognized, however, that the present system is not perfect, that seniority promotion can never stimulate and foster ambition

by rewarding merit and always bringing forward the best men in every emergency. We must not only have especially capable officers; we must also know who they are, and avail ourselves of their special talents. We must have a system of finding them out in time of peace, so that when an emergency comes there will have been already selected by some well-known, just, and equitable process, independent of the accidents of political changes or the possibility of favoritism, the officers who are specially fitted for extraordinary responsibilities and deserving of special promotion. The necessity of some such improvement can be best shown by the fact that in emergencies the country throws away the existing system altogether, and resorts to selection, pure and simple. That was the way the last volunteers were officered. The object of selection for these appointments was to get the best men for the places. The results speak for themselves. Never before in our history were volunteer regiments organized with such promptness, thoroughness, and success if we except the First United States Volunteer Cavalry of 1898, which was the pioneer of the new system and the model on which all the subsequent draft of volunteers was organized. The method of organizing these regiments created a new epoch in the mobilization of American volunteers; and it was a work of inestimable value to the Republic, for it taught us a better way to organize our fighting strength than we ever knew before, and so made us incomparably more formidable to our possible enemies.

But how was it done? When the time for action came the whole theory of seniority was discarded, just because it did not meet the requirements of the situation. The men for the emergency were picked as best they could be. The results justified the system and demonstrated the correctness of the merit theory, applied even imperfectly, without special previous preparation for such application.

Whatever we do let us be practical. If the existing system will not stand the strain of organizing some 50,000 volunteers, it is not good enough for the army or for the country. It needs some sort of modification. If seniority alone does not meet the needs of the service, if it will not bear the test of war, then let us so modify the system that it shall satisfy the needs of the service and meet the test of war.

Therefore, based on the foregoing discussion, there may be laid down the second proposition. Lineal promotion, by strict seniority, is the only safeguard army officers have. That safeguard is an absolute necessity. But the system needs a modification that will permit suitable recognition of, and reward for, especially meritorious or distinguished service,

by appropriate special promotion in the line itself, without sacrifice of the principle of seniority promotion.

Destruc

The object of this article is constructive, not destructive. tive criticism of men or systems is seldom valuable. The following proposition is, therefore, advanced to meet and satisfy all these conflicting interests. The solution is much simpler than the statement of the problem and will need no argument to sustain it.

men.

A few years ago we had two skeleton companies in each regiment— companies which had their full quota of officers, but had no enlisted These surplus officers constituted about twenty per cent of the line officers of the army. When the Spanish War came on, these extra officers were invaluable. We could hardly have got along without them. We need a small surplus of officers now as much as we ever did. are necessary details incident to the service which take away from the regiments, even in time of peace, over ten per cent of the regimental officers. At present, owing to conditions abroad, the drain is even heavier. Here is a necessity to be met.

There

We have a system of special details to the staff, recently established, by which officers so detailed are carried on in their proper places on the lineal register, but are actually commissioned with higher rank for fouryear details in the staff. In these two facts we have the germ of the idea. Stated briefly it is as follows:

Establish by law a "supernumerary list" of line officers, in each arm of the service, from captain to colonel, equal in each grade to ten per cent of the number now authorized by law in that grade. Prescribe by law that all promotions to this supernumerary list shall be for distinguished or meritorious service, to be determined in a prescribed manner, and place all officers in the service on an equal footing for such promotion. Prescribe that annually a board of three judge advocates shall select a list of candidates in each arm of the service for each grade on the supernumerary list in order of merit, as determined by consideration of official records of service. Prescribe that any officer in the service may make application for such consideration, or that any commanding officer may recommend any subordinate for such consideration, each application or recommendation to be accompanied by the official record of the service on which it is based. Prescribe that the candidates so selected shall be eligible for one year, and shall be considered by the next annual board if they fail of promotion during the year, but that all promotions during the year shall be from the list of candidates in the order determined by the annual board. Finally, let each officer so promoted be

carried on in his proper place on the lineal register, without number, until he shall be promoted lineally to his supernumerary grade, at which time let him revert to his place in the lineal list, creating a vacancy in the supernumerary list to be filled as before.

The extra officers, not many in number, available for any duty consistent with their rank, will afford a small surplus to meet details in time of peace, and will permit the regular army to furnish a quota of field officers to the volunteers in time of war, without depleting the regular regiments of officers. A board of judge advocates is recommended because these officers are absolutely independent of political influence, will not be themselves affected by the proposed law, are accustomed to weighing the values of records, and are professionally distinguished for the judicial fairness and temperament so essential to the proper discharge of this delicate duty.

This proposition would deprive no officer of any right, retain intact the seniority system, meet the actual needs of the service, open a legitimate avenue for the promotion of deserving officers, stimulate ambition, foster originality and enterprise, equalize rewards while at the same time securing appropriate recognition for all specially meritorious service, and be a powerful incentive to special zeal, energy, and industry in the case of every officer in the service. It would substitute the standard of the maximum for that of the minimum, and is believed to be entirely unobjectionable in every way. JOHN H. PARKER.

SHALL THE UNITED STATES LEASE ITS GRAZING LANDS?

WHEN adventure, going Westward Ho! had passed the 100th meridian west of Greenwich, it had left behind the humid influence of the Great Lakes, and entered a region that has its water supply a great many miles away. Of the vast arid and semi-arid area, the United States owns about six hundred millions of acres. Of that total it is estimated that one hundred millions may be irrigated by supplementing the natural reservoirs and storing the storm waters for gravity distribution. Another hundred millions may include the forested and semi-forested land, which should all be reserved and cherished as jealously as Naboth guarded his vineyard.

The remaining four hundred millions of acres are grazing lands. In their virgin state these were covered by a vast variety of forage plants, each affording pasture in its turn and season. They supplied a succession of feed for live stock on the most valuable and extensive grazing area in the world, not excepting the pampas of the Argentines. But they were on the public domain, free to everybody, where all live stock was a free commoner. The Government had dealt so with the public lands west and north of the Ohio River to the Loup fork of the Platte, where no dry season interrupted the growth and renewal of the natural forage. Everybody had ranged his stock on those moist prairies until they were conquered by the plough. Why, then, should not everybody have the same privilege wherever the public domain lay? Everybody enjoyed that privilege. But instead of grazing only domestic stock, the great beef herds were created. It was the most economical production of beef. Chicago built stockyards and slaughter-houses to receive it; Omaha and Kansas City followed; and for years the ranges poured out a stream of cattle to meet the pole-axe, supply the domestic market, and furnish a profitable export trade.

Then the supply slackened. The census of 1880 showed a decrease in the number of cattle per capita of our population. That of 1900 exhibited an accelerated decline. The delivery of range cattle to the slaughtering centres fell off sixty per cent in six years, and the price of