[Illustration]

THE NATURE OF SALUTES AND THEIR ORIGIN

The Civilian Salute

=1533.= When a gentleman raises his hat to a lady he is but continuing
a custom that had its beginning in the days of knighthood, when every
knight wore his helmet as a protection against foes. However, when
coming among friends, especially ladies, the knight would remove his
helmet as a mark of confidence and trust in his friends. In those days
failure to remove the helmet in the presence of ladies signified
distrust and want of confidence--today it signifies impoliteness and a
want of good breeding.

The Military Salute

=1534.= From time immemorial subordinates have always uncovered before
superiors, and equals have always acknowledged each other's presence
by some courtesy--this seems to be one of the natural, nobler
instincts of man. It was not so many years ago when a sentinel saluted
not only with his gun but by taking off his hat also. However, when
complicated headgear like the bearskin and the helmet came into use,
they could not be readily removed and the act of removing the hat was
finally conventionalized into the present salute--into the movement of
the hand to the visor as if the hat were going to be removed.

Every once in a while a man is found who has the mistaken idea that he
smothers the American spirit of freedom, that he sacrifices his
independence, by saluting his officers. Of course, no one but an
anarchist or a man with a small, shrivelled-up mind can have such
ideas.

Manly deference to superiors, which in military life is merely
recognition of constituted authority, does not imply admission of
inferiority any more than respect for law implies cowardice.

The recruit should at once rid himself of the idea that saluting and
other forms of military courtesy are un-American. The salute is the
soldier's claim from the very highest in the land to instant
recognition as a soldier. The raw recruit by his simple act of
saluting, commands like honor from the ranking general of the
Army--aye, from even the President of the United States.

While the personal element naturally enters into the salute to a
certain extent, when a soldier salutes an officer he is really
saluting the office rather than the officer personally--the salute is
rendered as a mark of respect to the rank, the position that the
officer holds, to the authority with which he is vested. A man with
the true soldierly instinct never misses an opp