etail in Noncommissioned Officers' Manual, by the author.
General agents: George Banta Publishing Co., Menasha, Wis.)=

=874.= The efficiency and discipline of a company depend to such an
extent on the noncommissioned officers that the greatest care and
judgment should be exercised in their selection. They should be men
possessing such soldierly qualities as a high sense of duty, cheerful
obedience to orders, force of character, honesty, sobriety and
steadiness, together with an intelligent knowledge of drills,
regulations, and orders.

They should exact prompt obedience from those to whom they give
orders, and should see that all soldiers under them perform their
military duties properly. They must not hesitate to reprove them when
necessary, but such reproof must not be any more severe than the
occasion demands.

The company officers must sustain the noncommissioned officers in the
exercise of their authority, except, of course, when such authority is
improperly or unjustly exercised. If they do wrong, they should be
punished the same as the privates, but if it be simply an error of
judgment they should merely be admonished. A noncommissioned officer
should never be admonished in the presence of privates.

Judicious praising of noncommissioned officers in the presence of
privates is not only gratifying to the noncommissioned officer, but it
also tends to enhance the respect and esteem of the privates for him.

In addition to dividing the company into squads, each squad being
under a noncommissioned officer as required by the Army Regulations,
the company should also be divided into sections, each section being
in charge of a sergeant. The squads and sections should, as far as
possible, be quartered together in barracks, and the chiefs of squads
and the chiefs of sections should be held strictly responsible for the
conduct, dress, cleanliness, and the care of arms of the members of
their respective squads and sections. Not only does this throw the
corporals and the sergeants upon their own responsibility to a certain
extent, but it also impresses upon them the importance of their
position, and gets the privates in the habit of realizing and
appreciating the authority exercised by noncommissioned officers.

When practicable, the noncommissioned officers should have separate
rooms or tents, and should mess together at tables separate from the
privates; for, everything that conduces to familiarity with inferiors
te