him the Secretary of War, advised at all times of the efficiency of the personnel and material of the artillery, and make such recommendations in reference thereto as shall in his judgment tend to promote efficiency.

2. He shall annually and as frequently as circumstances shall require inspect the coast and field artillery, and he shall from time to time and as frequently as once in each year report to the Commanding General, and through him to the Secretary of War, as to each coast-defense fortification, whether the same is in all respects ready for use in case of attack, and if not, in what respects the preparations are defective.

3. He shall from time to time, and as frequently as conditions require, confer directly with the Chief of Ordnance, and advise him of all matters relating to the character and preparation of artillery material which the experience and observation of the artillery arm of the service show to be of practical importance.

4. He shall have general supervision of the instruction of artillery officers and men and of examinations for promotion and for appointments and transfers of officers to the artillery arm, and shall recommend such examinations and such courses and methods of instruction in the artillery schools and otherwise as he shall deem requisite to secure a thoroughly trained and educated force.

5. He shall recommend officers for duty in coast or field artillery according to special aptitude and fitness, and is charged generally with the recommendation of officers of artillery for special duty.

6. Before any money is expended or any land is acquired for any seacoast fortification hereafter he shall advise the Secretary of War through the Commanding General whether the project under which the expenditure is to be made includes adequate provision for all the different elements of a complete coast-defense establishment, including fortification, armament, and accommodations for the use of troops; whether the land which it is proposed to acquire will be sufficient for all the purposes mentioned, and how far the appropriations available provide for the entire work. For that purpose all projects and plans for coast-defense fortifications shall upon coming into the office of the Secretary of War be referred, as of course in the first instance, to the Chief of Artillery for his report thereon.

7. He shall be a member of the Board of Ordnance and Fortification. 8. The records pertaining to the performance of the duties of the Chief of Artillery will be kept in the office of the Adjutant-General of the Army, through whom all communications relating to personnel, discipline, efficiency, transfers, and assignments should be made in accordance with existing regulations.

9. Nothing in these regulations shall be deemed to relieve the commanders of the several military departments of the duties of inspection

and command, or of responsibility for the condition and efficiency of the material and personnel of the artillery in their several departments as now provided by regulations. ELIHU ROOT, Secretary of War.

In pursuance of the provision of the act of February 2, 1901, which charges the coast artillery with the care and use of the fixed and movable elements of land and coast fortifications, including the submarine mine and torpedo defense, the Torpedo School at Willets Point has been transferred from the care of the engineers to the artillery, by whom it will be conducted hereafter, and the Engineer School has been removed to Washington Barracks.

Following the same design to secure enlarged activity and usefulness for the artillery arm, two additional artillery members have been appointed to the Board of Ordnance and Fortification under authority of the army appropriation act of March 2, 1901, and that important board now consists of three artillery officers, with the Lieutenant-General Commanding, the Chief of Engineers, the Chief of Ordnance, and one civilian. On the initiative of the Chief of Engineers an artillery officer has been added to the Board of Engineers, which is charged with consideration of plans of coast defense. The two volunteer battalions in Porto Rico have been continued and reorganized as two battalions of the Porto Rico Provisional Regiment authorized by the act. It has not been deemed necessary to increase the number by the addition of a third battalion.

Twenty-seven of the thirty dental surgeons authorized by the act have been selected, after a very careful examination under the direction of the Surgeon-General. There still remain three vacancies. . .

A board consisting of all the general officers of the line of the army now in the United States and the Chief of Artillery has been convened at Washington, and is now in session, to formulate and submit a project for the location, examina

tions, and surveys to be made for the permanent grounds provided for by section 35 of the act of February 2, 1901. This board is also charged with the duty of considering and reporting upon the location and distribution of military posts required for the proper accommodation, instruction, and training of the army as organized under the act of February second, not including coast fortifications, and is directed to make "recommendations in detail as to which of the existing posts should be retained or abandoned, and of those retained which, if any, should be enlarged and to what extent, and the location, size, and character of such new posts as may be necessary, having due regard in all its recommendations to the proper distribution of the different arms of the service, based upon strategic, sanitary, and economical considerations."

The provisions of section 38 of the act of February 2, 1901, prohibiting the sale of or dealing in beer, wine, or any intoxicating liquors by any person in any post exchange, or canteen, or army transport, or upon any premises used for military purposes by the United States, have been carried into full force and effect, pursuant to the directions of the statute.

When the orders were issued for the enforcement of this section of the law, the commanding officers of the various posts and military organizations were directed to report upon its effects. A great body of reports have been received, which indicate that the effect of the law is unfortunate. I think, however, that a sufficient time has not elapsed to give the law a fair trial, and the observation and report of its working will be continued during the ensuing year.

THE DISPOSITION TO BE MADE OF

THE ARMY IN PEACE

Extract from the Report of the Secretary of War for 19021

HE restoration of the normal conditions of peace, and

the return of the greater part of the army to the United States, have made it possible to resume with increased activity the work of preparing for future wars.

The increase of the army from 25,000 to a minimum of 60,000 has, of course, made necessary a great increase in barracks, quarters, hospitals, and all the constructions which go to make up an army post. The accommodations which had been provided before the war with Spain are now quite inadequate, and require to be more than doubled. The work of construction has been pressed vigorously by the Quartermaster's Department to the extent allowed by the appropriations made by Congress for this purpose.

The policy followed has been rather to increase the size of the posts in which the army is to be quartered than to increase the number. Two considerations have determined that policy: First, economy of administration, and second, and most important, efficiency of officers and men. The tendency of life in small one or two company posts is narrowing and dwarfing, and such posts can be justified only by necessity. On the other hand, the comparison and emulation between officers and organizations grouped in a large post, the advantages of systematic study and practice in the schools which can be maintained at such posts, the advantage of being under the immediate direction and influence of officers

of high rank who cannot be scattered among the small posts, but can be collected in the large ones; the practical benefit derived from handling considerable bodies of troops so that company officers may be learning to handle regiments, and regimental officers to handle brigades, and so on all these considerations, point to the large post as furnishing the conditions for increasing efficiency on the part of both officers and men.

The only argument which has been made against this view is that the scattering of the army in a great number of small posts would popularize it, and that there ought to be an equitable distribution of the troops among all the different states. I think these propositions may be dismissed with the confident assertion that the army will be popular and satisfactory to all the states in proportion as it is efficient and economical.

Another line of policy followed by the Department is, so far as practicable, to get the army posts out of the cities and large towns, and establish them upon larger tracts of cheaper land in the neighborhood of the same cities and towns, so that the men may have the benefit of country air instead of city air, and more room for training and exercise; the neighborhood of the barracks may be under military control; the rum shops and brothels may be pushed farther away from the men; and at the same time the advantages of convenient inspection, transportation and supply, and a reasonable degree of educational and social privileges, may be retained.

In order to secure a definite plan for the distribution of troops and the construction work necessary to provide for their maintenance, a board was convened in Washington in November last, composed of all the general officers of the army in the United States, under the following directions:

By direction of the Secretary of War, a board of officers is hereby appointed to meet in Washington, D. C., on the 25th day of November,