This privilege should be granted only to men who have still one year more to serve in their enlistment in the guard and who are recommended by their captains. They should be excused from post guard and all fatigue duty and in place of that receive additional instruction work each day. In order to obtain the most benefit, these men should be attached to those companies whose training is the best; in an indifferently trained company they would get some benefit but it would be little in comparison with what they would receive in the other class.
This recommendation is made from having recently seen the results of having a few men of the national guard join an excellent regular company for a short period. These men came without pay and themselves paid their board while with the company.
There would probably be no large number who would so serve, but there are some and we are in no condition in this country to overlook even small helps that will contribute towards fitting us for war.
Value in war
Owing to the small peace strength of most of these regiments and the large number of recruits they must take in on the outbreak of war, their value will depend on the time they will require to be fit for the field at war strength. They have the organization in working shape. Their officers will, in the majority of regiments, be men who have had considerable training. If they will follow a logical and systematic course of training in peace, the officers will be familiar with it and will be experienced instructors, and all their old men will have the instruction to a certain degree so that they can help drag up the recruits. All this will help to shorten the time required to fit them for the field and every day thus cut off adds greatly to their value.
Without such training their value is small, for no regiment should be accepted except at war strength and a national guard regiment so filled up, without experienced instructors who know the course, will take nearly as long to become efficient as would a new regiment.
IX
INSPECTIONS
Much can be done to improve the training of our infantry by the inspections. Most officers greatly dislike to have an adverse report made by an inspector on their commands. Fear of such a report sometimes works to the detriment of sound training and sometimes to its improvement.
Influence of inspections
A captain once asked why he put so much time on exercises of obviously little consequence and so little time on others more important, replied: “Blank will inspect this year. He always pays great attention to such and such an exercise and never examines the company in the others. I want a clean record on this inspection.”