be found in the report on the hygiene of the United States Army, issued by the Surgeon-General in 1875. After many years' experience in managing a hospital fund, in post hospitals before 1861, in a large general hospital during the war of the rebellion, and in post hospitals since, I can affirm that I have never found difficulty in feeding, properly, the sick in hospital. A few facts it will be well to state: The hospital fund in this department, for the seventeen months embraced in the first tables, has amounted to over $4,500, of which not far from one-seventh has been expended for other articles than food, and about $640 remained on hand at the end of the period. It is very evident that here is another means of diverting the soldier's ration from its legitimate end of feeding the soldier, and the introduction of these figures into the tables would have strengthened my conclusions. This, also, may be said of any probable inaccuracies in the statements of the company fund, as received from the company commander: If there are any instances in which an error has crept into the company fund reports, as to the articles charged; if, instead of a charge of five dollars for fuel, or blacking, or music, or repairs, or what not, appears the charge of $5 for flour, it only would show so much the more of the soldier's ration lost to him as food, and add additional force to the argument of this paper. The same may be said of any other shortcoming in these reports. I know of no error that would have concealed, or made to have appear less, the amount of food actually issued to the soldier. In other words, every error would tend to make the amount of food received by the soldier appear greater than that he really did receive. The foregoing figures and remarks, taken in connection with the letters of Genera Stanley and Captain Poole, naturally lead to the following recommendations, which I respectfully submit: 1st. That existing regulations and orders be so modified that the soldier may receive the whole of his authorized ration of flour, either in the shape of flour or bread. 2d. That the soldier receive the whole of his ration, or the product of its barter, in the shape of food. 3d. That such modifications be made in the components of the soldier's ration, as may be determined upon as best for the soldier-these modifications not to change the present cost price of the ration. The principal of these modifications would probably be the reduction of the amounts issued of pork and bacon, sugar and coffee; the substitution therefor of other articles of diet, and, perhaps, the adoption of slightly different rations for the white and colored troops, to meet their tastes. It is probable that all this could be accomplished without additional legislation. Section 8, of the act approved April 14, 1818, gives the President power to "make such alterations in the component parts of the ration as a due regard to the health and comfort of the Army and economy may require." This clause has, to the best of my belief, never been repealed, and the power has before been exercised. As the adoption of the foregoing recommendations would necessitate the meeting of the bakehouse expenses from some other source, an additional clause might be required in the annual appropriation bill, granting an allowance of fuel to the bakehouse, and extra pay to the baker. It can scarcely be doubted that Congress would grant the above, if it were properly represented to them 1st. That the law grants the soldier a certain ration. 2d. That he does not get it. 3d. That in consequence thereof, in the opinion of some of the best and most intelligent and experienced officers in the service, the soldier, in the field or on fatigue duty, is, to use the language of General Stanley, "constantly hungry." I hope that this matter may be pressed by the department commander, and that company commanders, and the soldiers themselves, may take it up, in the shape of petitions to the War Department, and Congress. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, JOS. R. SMITH, Surgeon United States Army, Medical Director Dept. of Texas. [First indorsement.] HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF TEXAS, Respectfully referred to the chief commissary of subsistence, of the department, for remark. By command of Brigadier,General Ord: THOMAS M. VINCENT, Assistant Adjutant-General. [Second indorsement.] HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF TEXAS, San Antonio, Texas, December 6, 1880. SIR: In compliance with indorsement from your office, dated December 5, 1880, I have the honor to return, herewith, the report of the medical director, Department of Texas, dated November 3, 1880, with the following remarks: I fully concur with the summing up of the medical director of this department; that the entire quantity of food authorized by law as the ration of the soldier should be given to him in kind, or in some other proper food, and no portion of it diverted either in the way of post or company fund. It is probable that a slight increase to the meat and bread portions-decreasing, slightly, the coffee and sugar portions-could be made to the improvement of the ration as now supplied to the Army; it should, however, be a principle established by regulations, that whatever the government allows as a ration must, if sold, be replaced by its equivalent, in food, to the soldier. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, C. B. PENROSE, Captain and Commissary of Subsistence, Chief Com. of Subsistence. To the ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GENERAL, [Third indorsement.] HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF TEXAS, Respectfully forwarded, through Headquarters Military Division of the Missouri. The medical director's exhaustive examination of the administration of the company fund shows that, where that fund is judiciously managed, the ration is satisfactory, in quantity and variety, for troops in garrison. The concurrent testimony of nearly all the officers whose views are referred to, is, that for troops in the field, or engaged at hard labor, the ration is insufficient. A change in our system so as to give the soldier the full ration, or its equivalent, in food, would afford relief to some extent. The Subsistence Department holds that the ration, when once issued, ceases to be the property of the United States; meaning, it is presumed, that when once issued the ration cannot be legally withheld or taken from the soldier. This view is supported by section 1294, Revised Statutes, wherein it is provided that "for each ration of coffee and sugar not issued, nor commuted for the extract of coffee, combined with milk and sugar, enlisted men shall be paid in money." The cost of converting flour into bread, not being otherwise provided for, is deducted; but the soldier should get the remainder in the form of food. The appropriation of money, derived from the sale of any part of the soldier's ration, to other purposes than providing food in greater variety, is, in my opinion, contrary to law. If there are, as there seem to be, good reasons for believing that the ration is only enough when the men are comfortably quartered and performing garrison duty, it will, as a matter of course, be insufficient when they are undergoing great fatigue and exposure, without the time or adequate means for properly preparing and economizing their full allowance of food; and I think the fact that men, under different circumstances, require an increased or diminished allowance of food, should be recognized and provided for. The authority to make such provision is, I believe, conferred upon the President by the statutes, and has been exercised by him, although the component parts of the ration were specified by law. E. O. C. ORD, Brigadier General, United States Army, Commanding. Respectfully returned to the Hon. Secretary of War, with remark that I concur fully in both the first and second recommendations within of Surgeon Smith, viz: 1st, "That existing regulations and orders be so modified that the soldier may receive the whole of his authorized ration of flour, either in the shape of flour or bread; and, 2d, that the soldier receive the whole of his ration, or the product of its barter, in the shape of food." In reference to his third recommendation, however, I am not convinced that any modification in the components of the ration (without changing present cost price of the ration) are necessary or advisable, or would be of benefit to the soldier or advantage to the service. If any article of the ration were unnecessary, or unimportant, or not desired, it would be advisable, no doubt, to substitute for it some other article more desirable and more important as food; but the articles of the ration were selected after mature consideration, and a long trial in all sorts of service in peace and war has proved their value and necessity, and has also shown that at times the entire ration is consumed, while at other times savings are made, not from one or two articles only, but at different times from every article of the ration. It would evidently be wholly impracticable to fix upon such a ration as would always be satisfactory, and no change for other articles of food be necessary or desired. If, however, the ration is ample; if every component thereof is a necessary article; and if on campaign or other hard service it is all consumed, and in garrison or camp savings are allowed to be sold and the proceeds expended for other articles of food, so as to afford the soldier a greater variety than any established ration could possibly permit, there is apparently little more to be desired in the Army rations. In my opinion no part of the savings from the ration should go to the post fund, but all to the company fund; that no part of the savings should, as now allowed, be expended for post schools, post libraries, gymnasiums, chapels, or for any purpose or articles whatever other than articles of food. I fully concur with General Ord in the opinion expressed by him in his indorsement herein of December 6, 1880, that "the appropriation of money derived from the sales of any part of the soldier's ration to other purposes than providing food in greater variety is contrary to law." Under existing orders and regulations savings from the ration may be sold either to the Subsistence Department or to parties outside, and with the proceeds purchases of other articles can be made either from local producers and dealers or from the Subsistence Department at original cost price, thus, in effect, making the ration to consist of as many components as may be desired. In my opinion no better system than the present could be devised for feeding our troops, none that would be more elastic, more economical, or better suited to our service and the necessities of our soldiers. If the first two recommendations within of Surgeon Smith are carried out, in my opinion the ration will be found ample, not only in quantity, but in variety. APPENDIX B. R. MACFEELY, Commissary-General of Subsistence. COL. JOHN GIBBON'S REPORT ON THE ARMY RATION. ADJUTANT-GENERAL, FORT SNELLING, MINN., March 5, 1881. Department of Dakota, Saint Paul, Minn. : SIR: Some time since I read a very instructive and interesting report on the subject of the Army ration, prepared by Surgeon Joseph R. Smith, medical director, Department of Texas (copy inclosed). It will be seen that, in the course of his investigations, Dr. Smith makes a comparison between the cost of rations sold and the cost of food bought in various companies and regiments serving in the Department of Texas. The amount of the former is somewhat increased by receipts from other sources besides the sale of rations. Table IX shows about $39,000 received by company funds, and about $36,000 expended for food. Of the former sum about $30,000 appears by Table XVIII to have accrued from the sale of component parts of the ration. But in this latter table the period embraced is three months less, and the number of companies is three less than in Table IX, hence I will assume that nearly all of the $39,000 in Table IX was the proceeds from the sale of the soldiers' rations. It appears then that, say, $3,000 more was received from rations sold than was expended in food for the men. This fact legitimately leads to the conclusion that $3,000 worth of food has been withheld from the men, but it does not by any means follow that the men have not received in pounds the amount of rations to which they are entitled by law; nor does it show that the amount of nutriment consumed by the soldier is less than that contained in the whole of the food ration to which he is entitled. This last fact is the more important one of the two to be established, and can only be done by an analytical investigation. The former fact (the amount of food in pounds received by the soldier), although of less importance than the latter, is of far more importance than any resulting from a comparison between the money value of the food bought and sold. In fact the difference in money value establishes nothing so far as regards the subsistence received by the soldier. He does not eat the money, and if it can be shown that he consumes a greater number of pounds of food than the whole number issued to him by the government, it appears to me that the conclusion drawn by Dr. Smith in this paper, that the soldier does not receive the whole of his ration (or its equivalent), must fall, and with it the corollary that the ration is now large enough. It is a well-known fact that at most western posts a pound of bacon or pork is An exami worth from three to five times as much as a pound of fresh beef or game. nation of Table XIX will show that the average price of fresh meat bought by the companies in Texas is 4.2 cents per pound. I can find in the paper no means of determining for how much per pound the pork and bacon of the companies were sold. At the posts in the Northwest, especially in the vicinity of mining regions, it sells as high as twenty and twenty-five cents per pound. Other articles of the ration, such as sugar, coffee, vinegar, &c., command correspondingly high prices. At many of the posts, and I expect at most of those, except such as are situated in the most unfavorable positions, the price of vegetables and most other food articles purchased for the use of the companies is low, so that the companies sell their articles at high prices and buy at low. This, then, is the problem for solution: How much (in pounds, not dollars) did the companies sell, and how much did they buy? If the latter exceeds the former, then, surely, the men consumed more than the legal ration, and this latter is not sufficient; for it should be large enough to properly subsist the men under all contingencies. If the ration is not sufficient under all contingencies, then the men will go hungry, as General Stanley says, at the very time of all others when they should be well fed, namely, whilst serving in the field cut off from all other food. To aid in the solution of the problem in question, I caused a circular to be issued to the company commanders of the Seventh Infantry (copy inclosed). The information gathered from the reports submitted by the company commanders is consolidated in Table A, herewith. The most important fact established by this table is set forth in columns numbered 2 and 4. Column 2 shows that during the year 1880, 129,188 pounds of food were bought and consumed by the companies at a cost of $3,248.71. By column 4 it appears that 40,646 pounds of the ration (including candles and soap) were sold during the same period, bringing in the sum of $2,637.99. Making due allowance for possible errors, it thus appears that the companies have received more than three times as much food as they sold, at an increase of cost over the sales of only $610.72. This fact alone demonstrates that the companies have lost nothing in food by the sale of a part of the ration. On the contrary they have gained, and gained so largely as to overbalance any loss resulting from the abstraction of one-third of the flour by the post bakery. Most of the companies note a large purchase of flour, which would seem to show that that constituent of the issued ration is not large enough. Column 3, which must necessarily be largely the result of estimates (but which are deemed within limits), shows that the food of the companies has been increased by considerably more than one-half of the total amount of rations issued. (Column 1.) (Estimating the ration at three pounds.) Column 5 shows that the amount of food consumed by the companies, exceeds by more than one-half the full amount issued by the government. This excess per man, per day, varies (column 7) from a minimum of three-fourths pounds, scant, to a maximum of three pounds, large, the general average being about one and sixty-nine-hundredths (1.69) pounds. In other words, the soldier consumes more than one and onehalf pounds more food than the government issues to him, including the value of soap and candles. These figures amply demonstrate the fact that the ration issued by the government is not large enough, even when the men get it all or its equivalent, and hence it is that men are hungry at the very time of all others when they should not be so, that is, when they have the most work to do. I have no reason to suppose that the results in other regiments will be found to differ essentially from those demonstrated in mine; should there be any doubt upon this point, I respectfully recommend that this investigation be extended to other commands. Congress has repeatedly recognized the fact that the ration is too small, by always increasing it during wars; by providing that certain ordnance men shall receive one and one-half rations daily (sec. 1293), and by adding to their ration whenever militia serve on the western frontier (sec. 1655). I have no doubt that could this inquiry be extended so as to include the purchase of food by soldiers from all sources (post traders, &c.), the disparity between the amount of the ration issued and the amount of food consumed would be shown to be still greater. In accordance with the foregoing, I respectfully recommend: 1st. That the present ration be increased 4 ounces of bread or flour; 1.6 ounces of rice in addition to the present ration of beans or pease, and 9.6 ounces of potatoes, these last being replaced in the field, when practicable, by an issue of dried fruit and molasses, or by an equivalent increase in bacon, sugar, and coffee. The increase recommended is the same as that suggested by Surgeon Glover Perin, whose valuable investigations upon the nutritive properties of the constituent of the ration lead directly up to the proposed increase. The whole proposed increase amounts to 15.2 ounces, which ought to be sufficient except under the most extraordinary circumstances, such as are not likely to exist in our bountifully provided country, for any considerable length of time. 2d. That all expenditures of company funds be prohibited except for the purchase of food for the men. If this is adopted, it will obviate one serious objection, very strongly and properly urged by Surgeon Smith. 3d. That table furniture of a duly prescribed and suitable kind be furnished by the government. I never have been able to understand the propriety of furnishing table furniture, books, &c., from the proceeds of the sale of rations, in preference to using the funds resulting from the sale of surplus forage, fuel, or ammunition. As this is a matter closely concerning the welfare of the whole Army, I recommend that this report be referred to the chief commissary of subsistence and the medical director of the department for an expression of their views, and then, if deemed appropriate, that it be forwarded for the action of higher authority. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, JOHN GIBBON, Colonel Seventh Infantry. [Circular.] HEADQUARTERS SEVENTH INFANTRY, Company commanders will forward to regimental headquarters, as soon as it can be prepared, a tabular statement for the four quarters of the year 1880, setting forth the following facts: The amount, in pounds and ounces, of each article sold from the company rations, with the price obtained for each. The amount, in pounds and ounces, of all articles of food, with the cost thereof, purchased for the use of the company. The amount, in pounds, of all rations issued to the company (including the full ration of bread or flour), calculating the full ration at three pounds. As far as can be ascertained, the amount, in pounds, consumed by the company outside of the amount purchased (such as vegetables from post or company gardens, game, &c.). This information will be consolidated on forms furnished to companies from regimental headquarters. As this is an important matter, required to demonstrate whether or not the ration as now issued to the men is large enough, the regimental commander directs that company commanders give it their careful personal attention. By order of Col. John Gibbon. Official. Second Lieutenant, Acting Adjutant Seventh Infantry. E. E. HARDIN, Adding columns 1, 2, and 3 together and subtracting column 4 gives column 5. Subtracting 1 from 5 gives 6. Dividing column 6 by 366, and dividing the quotient by the average number of men drawn for, gives column 7. Signifies here plus. |