its
field officers and company commandants--a kind of Gatling educational
battery for the propulsion of brains. It would be just as sensible to
put the West Point cadets in the field as a fighting corps as to put
some of our best regiments. Their heads are worth more to the country
than their bodies.

I have suggested special taxation of the enrolled militia to reimburse
the State for its military expenditures. It can probably be collected
more expeditiously and with less expense through a special department
of the Commissioner of Jurors than through any other channel. It is now
necessary for the Commissioner to keep lists of jurors and register all
exempts, and the plan would certainly aid him in those duties of his
department by giving him a fuller and more correct canvass of citizens.

The encouragement needed to induce men and officers to spend their
leisure hours for ten years in these normal battalions is to void the
present remission of assessment, as an inequitable provision--reimburse
them for clothing, relieve them from jury duty for life, and exempt
them from any possible future draft. With their discharges give the men
sergeants' warrants, non-commissioned officers lieutenants'
commissions, and advance officers' commissions one grade, waiting
papers for possible future services. Furnish comfortable and
substantial drill-rooms and armories, and reimburse battalions for
proper musical expenditures.

The State should hold itself responsible to the general Government for
its officers who may be touched by a draft and furnish the necessary
substitutes as compensation in part for their former and prospective
services.

Experience furnishes proof that well made, good-fitting clothing,
stylish, but not extravagant, is much better and cheaper than the
low-priced, ugly State uniforms, ground out by contract, allotted by
sizes, and fitting by chance. There is no economy in the joint
ownership of a uniform; the nominal owner is niggardly in purchase and
the wearer careless in use. Let the uniform be chosen by corps, made in
accordance with regimental bills of dress, by individual measure, and
let the State reimburse the corps by a liberal commutation. To
reimburse battalions for their music may seem a costly item--it
certainly is a great expense to the present uniformed corps--but as the
project is based upon the idea of a self-supporting establishment,
there is no injury to the State; a nominal tax paid by the enr