The President, in accordance with the Constitution, is commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States and of the militia of the several states when called to the actual service of the United States. The law provides that the total strength of the army shall not exceed at any one time 100,000. As now organized (1910) the total strength of the staff and line is 76,911 not including the provisional force and the hospital corps. These figures include the Porto Rico Regiment of Infantry, the Service School Detachments, the Military Academy (officers, soldiers and cadets), the Indian Scouts, 52,000 native scouts in the Philippine Islands, 193 First Lieutenants of the Medical Reserve Corps on active duty, and 11,777 recruits, etc. They do not include the veterinary surgeons, the officers of the Medical Reserve Corps not on active duty, nor the retired officers and enlisted men of the army. The appropriation for the maintenance of the army for the year 1909-10 was $100,330,181.
Militia
The law of our country states that in time of war every able-bodied male citizen, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, {343} shall be counted a member of the state militia. The state militia is divided into two classes: one, the organized, known as the national guard; and the other the unorganized, known as the reserve militia.
The membership of the national guard is voluntary. One may join or not, as he chooses, except that in some states the law requires that students at the state university shall receive military training for at least a part of their university course, and during that time they are accounted a part of the national guard of the State. The governor of each state holds the same relationship to the state militia as the President to the army and navy: he is commander-in-chief.
Military Academy
The United States Military Academy is at West Point, N. Y., on the Hudson River. The number of students is limited to 533, and appointments to the academy are made in accordance with the rule which permits each United States senator and each congressman to have one representative, and also gives the President the right to make forty appointments at large. Candidates for appointment must be between the ages of seventeen and twenty-two; must pass the required physical examination; also an examination in English grammar, composition and literature, algebra and geometry, geography and history. The course of instruction is four years; the discipline very strict. Only one leave of absence is granted during the entire four years, and this comes at the close of the second year. The pay is $709.50 per year, and on graduation a cadet is commissioned a second lieutenant. To receive an appointment to West Point, one must apply to his United States senator or to a congressman in the state in which he lives, or to the President.
The Navy
The enlisted strength of the navy, as in the army, is limited.
The law allows 47,500 men and apprenticed seamen. The number of officers and enlisted men at the present time is 46,898, and the annual expenditure for the support of the navy at this date (1911) is about $130,000,000.
Naval Enlistment