Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography. Theodore Roosevelt

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СКАЧАТЬ it best only to make a beginning—experience teaches the most inveterate reformer how hard it is to get a totally non-military nation to accept seriously any military improvement. Accordingly, I merely issued directions that each officer should prove his ability to walk fifty miles, or ride one hundred, in three days.

      This is, of course, a test which many a healthy middle-aged woman would be able to meet. But a large portion of the press adopted the view that it was a bit of capricious tyranny on my part; and a considerable number of elderly officers, with desk rather than field experience, intrigued with their friends in Congress to have the order annulled. So one day I took a ride of a little over one hundred miles myself, in company with Surgeon-General Rixey and two other officers. The Virginia roads were frozen and in ruts, and in the afternoon and evening there was a storm of snow and sleet; and when it had been thus experimentally shown, under unfavorable conditions, how easy it was to do in one day the task for which the army officers were allowed three days, all open objection ceased. But some bureau chiefs still did as much underhanded work against the order as they dared, and it was often difficult to reach them. In the Marine Corps Captain Leonard, who had lost an arm at Tientsin, with two of his lieutenants did the fifty miles in one day; for they were vigorous young men, who laughed at the idea of treating a fifty-mile walk as over-fatiguing. Well, the Navy Department officials rebuked them, and made them take the walk over again in three days, on the ground that taking it in one day did not comply with the regulations! This seems unbelievable; but Leonard assures me it is true. He did not inform me at the time, being afraid to "get in wrong" with his permanent superiors. If I had known of the order, short work would have been made of the bureaucrat who issued it.[*]

      [*] One of our best naval officers sent me the following

       letter, after the above had appeared:—

       "I note in your Autobiography now being published in the

       Outlook that you refer to the reasons which led you to

       establish a physical test for the Army, and to the action

       you took (your 100-mile ride) to prevent the test being

       abolished. Doubtless you did not know the following facts:

       "1. The first annual navy test of 50 miles in three days was

       subsequently reduced to 25 miles in two days in each

       quarter.

       "2. This was further reduced to 10 miles each month, which

       is the present 'test,' and there is danger lest even this

       utterly insufficient test be abolished.

       "I enclose a copy of a recent letter to the Surgeon General

       which will show our present deplorable condition and the

       worse condition into which we are slipping back.

       "The original test of 50 miles in three days did a very

       great deal of good. It decreased by thousands of dollars the

       money expended on street car fare, and by a much greater sum

       the amount expended over the bar. It eliminated a number of

       the wholly unfit; it taught officers to walk; it forced them

       to learn the care of their feet and that of their men; and

       it improved their general health and was rapidly forming a

       taste for physical exercise."

       The enclosed letter ran in part as follows:—

       "I am returning under separate cover 'The Soldiers' Foot and

       the Military Shoe.'

       "The book contains knowledge of a practical character that

       is valuable for the men who HAVE TO MARCH, WHO HAVE SUFFERED

       FROM FOOT TROUBLES, AND WHO MUST AVOID THEM IN ORDER TO

       ATTAIN EFFICIENCY.

       "The words in capitals express, according to my idea, the

       gist of the whole matter as regards military men.

       "The army officer whose men break down on test gets a black

       eye. The one whose men show efficiency in this respect gets

       a bouquet.

       "To such men the book is invaluable. There is no danger that

       they will neglect it. They will actually learn it, for

       exactly the same reasons that our fellows learn the gunnery

       instructions—or did learn them before they were withdrawn

       and burned.

       "B U T, I have not been able to interest a single naval

       officer in this fine book. They will look at the pictures

       and say it is a good book, but they won't read it. The

       marine officers, on the contrary, are very much interested,

       because they have to teach their men to care for their feet

       and they must know how to care for their own. But the naval

       officers feel no such necessity, simply because their men do

       not have to demonstrate their efficiency by practice

       marches, and they themselves do not have to do a stunt that

       will show up their own ignorance and inefficiency in the

       matter.

       "For example, some time ago I was talking with some chaps

       about shoes—the necessity of having them long enough and

       wide enough, etc., and one of them said: 'I have no use for

       such shoes, as I never walk except when I have to, and any

       old shoes do for the 10-mile-a-month stunt,' so there you

       are!

       "When the first test was ordered, Edmonston (Washington shoe

       man) told me that he sold more real walking shoes to naval

       officers in three months than he had in the three preceding

       years. I know three officers who lost both big-toe nails

       after the first test, and another who walked nine miles in

       practice with a pair of heavy walking shoes that were too

       small and was laid up for three days—could not come to the

       office. I know plenty of men who after the first test had to

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