ortunity to salute his
officers.

As a matter of fact, military courtesy is just simply an application
of common, every-day courtesy and common sense. In common, every-day
courtesy no man with the instincts of a gentleman ever thinks about
taking advantage of this thing and that thing in order to avoid paying
to his fellow-man the ordinary, conventional courtesies of life, and
if there is ever any doubt about the matter, he takes no chances but
extends the courtesy. And this is just exactly what the man who has
the instincts of a real soldier does in the case of military courtesy.
The thought of "Should I salute or should I not salute" never enters
the mind of a soldier just because he happens to be in a wagon, in a
postoffice, etc.

In all armies of the world, all officers and soldiers are required to
salute each other whenever they meet or pass, the subordinate saluting
first. The salute on the part of the subordinate is not intended in
any way as an act of degradation or a mark of inferiority, but is
simply a military courtesy that is as binding on the officer as it is
on the private, and just as the enlisted man is required to salute the
officer first, so is the officer required to salute his superiors
first. It is a bond uniting all in a common profession, marking the
fact that above them there is an authority that both recognize and
obey--the Country! Indeed, by custom and regulations, it is as
obligatory for the ranking general of the Army to return the salute of
the recruit, as it is for the latter to give it.

Let it be remembered that the military salute is a form of greeting
that belongs exclusively to the Government--to the soldier, the
sailor, the marine--it is the mark and prerogative of the military man
and he should be proud of having the privilege of using that form of
salutation--a form of salutation that marks him as a member of the
Profession of Arms--the profession of Napoleon, Wellington, Grant,
Lee, Sherman, Jackson and scores of others of the greatest and most
famous men the world has ever known. The military salute is ours, it
is ours only. Moreover, it belongs only to the soldier who is in good
standing, the prisoner under guard, for instance, not being allowed to
salute. Ours is a grand fraternity of men-at-arms, banded together for
national defense, for the maintenance of law and order--we are bound
together by the love and respect we bear the flag--we are pledged to
loyalty, to one God,