the same provisions as to physical examinations before and after the test as apply in the case of officers taking the riding test. This will consist of a march of 50 miles, to be made in three consecutive days and in a total of twenty hours, including rests, the march on any one day to be during consecutive hours. Should any of these officers prefer, and it be practicable, they may be permitted to take the riding test prescribed in paragraph 3 instead of this walking test.

5. For the present, field officers holding permanent appointments in the various staff corps (the Adjutant-General's Department, the Inspector-General's Department, the Corps of Engineers, and the Signal Corps excepted) may be permitted, should they prefer, to take the walking test prescribed in the preceding paragraph for field officers of the Coast Artillery Corps in lieu of the riding test prescribed in paragraph 3.

6. Field officers of the permanent staff corps, not detailed from the line, engaged upon civil work of a technical character, who have arrived at an age and rank which renders it highly improbable that they will ever be assigned to any duty requiring participation in active military operations in the field, may, upon their own application, forwarded through military channels to The Adjutant-General of the Army, be excused from the physical test (but not the physical examination) prescribed above. Such a request, however, if granted, will be regarded by the executive authority as a conclusive reason for not selecting them for any future promotion in volunteer rank or for assignment or promotion to positions involving participation in operations of the line of the army.

7. Division and department commanders and the commanding general, Army of Cuban Pacification, will cause each officer below the grade of major within the geographical limits of their respective commands to be examined physically once each fiscal year, during the same periods prescribed in paragraph 2, but this examination may be omitted if some time during the preceding twelve months the officer shall have been examined for promotion. This examination will be made by any medical officer serving with the army, and whenever practicable at the station of the officer examined. The procedure set forth in the blank form provided for the purpose (Form No. 378, A. G. O.) will be followed in these examinations.

8. All reports of results of examinations and tests will be made on the blank forms referred to above.

9. The provisions of General Orders, No. 240, War Department, 1907, as to the attendance of all officers at practice marches and as to affording opportunity for infantry captains to cultivate horsemanship, will be closely observed, and a special report made, through military channels, to The Adjutant-General of the Army, in each case where an officer falls out on practice marches or fails to make the same without having been excused by proper authority. By order of the Acting Secretary of War:

Official:

HENRY P. MCCAIN,
Adjutant-General.

57047-WAR 1908-VOL 1--6

J. FRANKLIN BELL, Major-General, Chief of Staff.

APPENDIX B.

ELIMINATION BILL.

A BILL To increase the efficiency of the Army of the United States.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to prescribe a physical examination of all officers of the Army of the grades of major and of lieutenantcolonel to determine their fitness for promotion: Provided, That should any such officer fail in his physical examination and be found incapacitated for service by reason of physical disability contracted in line of duty, he shall be retired with the rank to which his seniority entitle him to be promoted; but should the incapacity be found to have resulted from his own misconduct, he shall be honorably discharged from the Army, with one year's pay.

SEC. 2. That when at the end of any fiscal year the average number of vacancies for the fiscal years subsequent to the passage of this Act in the grade of colonel in the cavalry, artillery, or infantry of the Army has been less than sixteen and eighty-four one-hundredths per centum of the authorized number of lieutenant-colonels in each arm, respectively; or in like manner when the average number of vacancies in the grade of lieutenant-colonel has been less than nine and eightynine one-hundredths per centum of the authorized number of majors; or in like manner when the average number of vacancies in the grade of major has been less than four and seventy-three one-hundredths per centum of the authorized number of captains; or in like manner when the average number of vacancies in the grade of captain has been less than twelve and eight one-hundredths per centum of the authorized number of first lieutenants; or in like manner when the average number of vacancies in the grade of first lieutenant has been less than eighteen and eighty-nine one-hundredths per centum of the authorized number of second lieutenants, the necessary additional vacancies to bring the average in each grade in each arm up to the percentages above named shall be created as hereinafter provided.

SEC. 3. That upon the occurrence of a deficiency of vacancies in any grade, as set forth in section two of this act, the Secretary of War shall convene, as soon after the first of July as practicable, a board of five officers of the Army for the purpose of selecting from the active list of the several arms the necessary number to be retired: Provided, That if practicable, the grade of all officers composing such boards shall be senior to that of the officers to be considered by the board. The board shall have placed at its disposal the complete efficiency and medical records of all officers, as the list stood June thirtieth preceding, in those arms and grades wherein less than the required average

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of vacancies exists. Each member of said board shall swear or affirm that he will, without partiality, favor, or affection, and having in view solely the special fitness of officers and the efficiency of the Army, perform the duties imposed upon him by this act.

The board shall then proceed to select for retirement from the several grades the requisite number from among those officers found to be, from any cause, least qualified for further active service, the number taken from each grade being such as to cause the average number of vacancies therein to conform to the percentages set forth in the preceding section: Provided, That no colonel shall be retired under the provisions of this section when the effect thereof would be to promote a lieutenant-colonel of less than three years' service as such, unless the total commissioned service of said lieutenant-colonel exceeds twenty-eight years; nor shall any lieutenant-colonel be retired under the provisions of this section when the effect thereof would be to promote a major of less than five years' service as such, unless the total commissioned service of said major exceeds twentyfive years; nor shall any major be retired under the provisions of this section when the effect thereof would be to promote a captain of less than ten years' service as such, unless the total commissioned service of said captain exceeds eighteen years; nor shall any captain be retired under the provisions of this section when the effect thereof would be to promote any first lieutenant whose total length of commissioned service is less than ten years; nor shall any first lieutenant be retired under the provisions of this section when the effect thereof would be to promote any second lieutenant of less than four years' commissioned service: And provided further, That in computing the total length of commissioned service there shall be included therein any commissioned service in the United States Volunteers. The proceedings and recommendations of the board shall be in writing; shall be signed by all the members, a majority governing, and shall be transmitted to the President, who shall thereupon by order transfer to the unlimited retired list the officers who have been selected as provided in this act.

SEC. 4. That each officer retired pursuant to the provisions of this act, except as provided in section one hereof, shall be entitled to retired pay at the rate of a per centum of the pay he was receiving at the date of his retirement, which per centum shall be equal to the product of the square of the nearest number of complete years of his service as a commissioned officer, multiplied by one-twelfth: Provided, That for terms of commissioned service less than ten complete years, each officer retired under the provisions of this act, except as provided in section one hereof, shall be entitled to one year's pay in lieu of all other retired pay: And provided further, That retired pay shall never exceed seventy-five per centum of the maximum pay of the grade.

SEC. 5. That in computing the authorized commissioned strength in any grade, as required in section two hereof, the officers detailed in accordance with existing law for stated tours of duty in the various staff departments shall be included in that arm wherein they hold permanent commissions.

SEC. 6. That all laws or parts of laws in conflict with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed, and nothing in this act shall be construed as changing the method of promotion now provided by law.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, May 25, 1908. SIR: Referring to Senate bill No. 3925, Fifty-ninth Congress, I have the honor to transmit herewith a new draft of a bill (inclosure 1) to the same effect, but revised in accordance with the changes in the organization of the army produced by legislation had subsequent to the time when the former draft was drawn.

The purpose of the bill is to increase the efficiency of the army, and particularly that of the fighting branches. The importance of the bill can not be measured by its brevity. It seeks to provide a remedy for a condition of affairs in the army, bad now, but certain to become intolerable unless a cure is applied. That condition is the result of stagnation in promotion, combined with unavoidable failure in practice of retiring and examining boards to remedy the evil.

The first section merely extends the provisions of existing law, so far as physical examination before promotion is concerned, to the field grades.

Now, there is no further examination after the grade of major is reached. The bill provides such examination to ascertain physical fitness. It provides further that should the average number of vacancies per year from all causes in each grade from colonel to first lieutenant be less than a certain per cent of the total number of officers in the grade next below, additional vacancies to bring the total up to the required number shall be provided by weeding out the least efficient officers on the active list.

They are selected by a sworn board, impartially, and are retired without increase of rank and with pay proportioned to their length of service.

The selections for retirement are made solely with a view of benefiting the service by putting out of active service those (in limited number) who, from any cause, are found least qualified for duty. The selections come from the various grades in certain proportions calculated to maintain a fair average of promotion and to bring officers, before their period of usefulness is nearly over, into positions where their activities will insure good organizations.

An object of the bill is to secure what is absolutely indispensable to keep heart in our fighting units, namely, some prospects of promotion. Notably in accomplishing this purpose it adds a second and very important benefit to the service by eliminating those who, in the lapse of years and from any cause, have ceased to be fully equal to the work the Government has a right to expect. The proportion of field officers to company officers is such as to compel slow promotion everywhere in the service; in fact, it is of the utmost importance that promotion should be at least fair and officers put in responsible positions while in the fullness of vigor.

It is a remarkable fact that our organization and our promotion laws are such as to insure in the greater part of the fighting force the minimum of promotion with the maximum of rust and decrepitude, exactly the reverse of what a wise policy would dictate. It is to remedy in some degree this unfortunate and unwise condition that this bill is offered. It makes no extravagant demands on the Treasury. It does injustice to no man. It is believed that it would, in practice, operate most beneficially to give our mobile army one of the

most essential features of such a force, i. e., field and company officers possessed of zeal and physical energy.

This bill, it is believed, will correct the two evils mentioned above which exist among the officers of the Army: The evil of superannuation and the evil of the presence of inefficient members, whom existing laws are not efficacious in eliminating.

The evil of superannuation arises from the character of the organization of the personnel of the officers. It is evident that in a body which is entered by its component members at an approximate given age about 23 years for the officers of the army-and left at a stated age-64 years for officers-and in which advancement is had regularly in the order of seniority, the proportion of his total time of service that an individual will spend in each one of the grades of the organization will depend upon the ratio which the number in each grade bears to the total number in the organization-that is, if the numbers in the high grades are small in comparison with the total strength of the organization, the proportion of his service which the individual will spend in the high grades will be small in comparison with his total service. In other words, he will reach the high grades late in life. Similarly, if the numbers in the high grades are large in comparison with the total number, the individual will spend a correspondingly large proportion of his life in the high grades, or will reach the high grades at an early age.

The proportion of officers in the different grades of an army is approximately the same in all services of the world, and has been arrived at as the result of the world's experience of what has been found conducive to military efficiency. In a fighting organization in the United States something over a thousand men are placed under the command of a single officer, a colonel; there is one general assistant, who can take the place of the colonel upon occasion, a lieutenant-colonel. The organization, a regiment, is divided into three parts, each of which is under a commander, a major, and each of the three parts, or battalions, is divided into four companies, each of which has a captain and two lieutenants. In addition there are a certain number of staff officers of a regiment, whose duties are general.

Regiments are grouped together into larger organizations, under command of higher officers, and these again into still larger organizations, under the command of still higher officers. The higher commanding officers have staff officers to look after the general duties connected with the entire body, the staff officers having rank appropriate to the duties which they perform. The division into grades in the United States is such that, in the line of the army and in the staff organizations which are formed by detail of officers from the line, the general officers constitute about 0.9 per cent of the whole number, colonels about 2.6 per cent, lieutenant-colonels about 3 per cent, majors about 8.03 per cent, captains about 31 per cent, first lieutenants about 27.9 per cent, and second lieutenants about 26.8 per cent.

The consequence of these proportions is that, in the ordinary course of promotion by seniority, considering casualties that occur through death, resignation, dismissal, disability, and retirement at 64 years of age, officers will reach the grade of first lieutenant at about 29.5 years of age, that of captain at about 38.5 years of age, that of major at