he law provides that the total strength of the
army shall not exceed at any one time 100,000. As now organized (1910)
the total strength of the staff and line is 76,911 not including the
provisional force and the hospital corps. These figures include the
Porto Rico Regiment of Infantry, the Service School Detachments, the
Military Academy (officers, soldiers and cadets), the Indian Scouts,
52,000 native scouts in the Philippine Islands, 193 First Lieutenants
of the Medical Reserve Corps on active duty, and 11,777 recruits, etc.
They do not include the veterinary surgeons, the officers of the
Medical Reserve Corps not on active duty, nor the retired officers and
enlisted men of the army. The appropriation for the maintenance of the
army for the year 1909-10 was $100,330,181.

Militia

The law of our country states that in time of war every able-bodied
male citizen, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, {343} shall
be counted a member of the state militia. The state militia is divided
into two classes: one, the organized, known as the national guard; and
the other the unorganized, known as the reserve militia.

The membership of the national guard is voluntary. One may join or
not, as he chooses, except that in some states the law requires that
students at the state university shall receive military training for
at least a part of their university course, and during that time they
are accounted a part of the national guard of the State. The governor
of each state holds the same relationship to the state militia as the
President to the army and navy: he is commander-in-chief.

Military Academy

The United States Military Academy is at West Point, N. Y., on the
Hudson River. The number of students is limited to 533, and
appointments to the academy are made in accordance with the rule which
permits each United States senator and each congressman to have one
representative, and also gives the President the right to make forty
appointments at large. Candidates for appointment must be between the
ages of seventeen and twenty-two; must pass the required physical
examination; also an examination in English grammar, composition and
literature, algebra and geometry, geography and history. The course of
instruction is four years; the discipline very strict. Only one leave
of absence is granted during the entire four years, and this comes at
the close of the second year. The pay is $709.50 per year, and on
graduation