which, however good, were yet manned by untrained and unskillful crews.  The best officers and men in a poor ship could do nothing against fairly good opponents; and on the other hand a modern war ship is useless unless the officers and men aboard her have become adepts in their duties.  The marksmanship in our Navy has improved in an extraordinary degree during the last three years, and on the whole the types of our battleships are improving; but much remains to be done.  Sooner or later we shall have to provide for some method by which there will be promotions for merit as well as for seniority, or else retirement all those who after a certain age have not advanced beyond a certain grade; while no effort must be spared to make the service attractive to the enlisted men in order that they may be kept as long as possible in it.  Reservation public schools should be provided wherever there are navy-yards.

Within the last three years the United States has set an example in disarmament where disarmament was proper.  By law our Army is fixed at a maximum of one hundred thousand and a minimum of sixty thousand men.  When there was insurrection in the Philippines we kept the Army at the maximum.  Peace came in the Philippines, and now our Army has been reduced to the minimum at which it is possible to keep it with due regard to its efficiency.  The guns now mounted require twenty-eight thousand men, if the coast fortifications are to be adequately manned.  Relatively to the Nation, it is not now so large as the police force of New York or Chicago relatively to the population of either city.  We need more officers; there are not enough to perform the regular army work.  It is very important that the officers of the Army should be accustomed to handle their men in masses, as it is also important that the National Guard of the several States should be accustomed to actual field maneuvering, especially in connection with the regulars.  For this reason we are to be congratulated upon the success of the field maneuvers at Manassas last fall, maneuvers in which a larger number of Regulars and National Guard took part than was ever before assembled together in time of peace.  No other civilized nation has, relatively to its population, such a diminutive Army as ours; and while the Army is so small we are not to be excused if we fail to keep it at a very high grade of proficiency.  It must be incessantly practiced; the standard for the enlisted men should be kept very high, while at the same time the service should be made as attractive as possible; and the standard for the officers should be kept even higher—­which, as regards the upper ranks, can best be done by introducing some system of selection and rejection into the promotions.  We should be able, in the event of some sudden emergency, to put into the field one first-class army corps, which should be, as a whole, at least the equal of any body of troops of like number belonging to any other nation.