Page 226 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

Preparedness for Naval War. 207

crux of the matter. This is essentially the
question between long-service and short-service
systems. With long service the reserves will
be fewer, and for the first few years of retire-
ment much more efficient, for they have ac-
quired, not knowledge only, but a habit of life.
With short service, more men are shoved
through the mill of the training-school. Con-
sequently they pass more rapidly into the
reserve, are less efficient when they get there,
and lose more rapidly, because they have
acquired less thoroughly; on the other hand,
they will be decidedly more numerous, on paper
at least, than the entire trained force of a
long-service system. The pessimists on either
side will expound the dangers— the one, of
short numbers ; the others, of inadequate
training.
Long service must be logically the desire,
and the result, of voluntary systems of recruit-
ing the strength of a military force. Where
enrolment is a matter of individual choice,
there is a better chance of entrance resulting
in the adoption of the life as a calling to be
followed ; and this disposition can be encour-
aged by the offering of suitable inducements.