The report of the Secretary of War herewith attached, and forming a part
of this message, gives all the information concerning the operations,
wants, and necessities of the Army, and contains many suggestions and
recommendations which I commend to your special attention.
There is no class of Government employees who are harder worked than the
Army--officers and men; none who perform their tasks more cheerfully and
efficiently and under circumstances of greater privations and hardships.
Legislation is desirable to render more efficient this branch of the
public service. All the recommendations of the Secretary of War I regard
as judicious, and I especially commend to your attention the following:
The consolidation of Government arsenals; the restoration of mileage to
officers traveling under orders; the exemption of money received from
the sale of subsistence stores from being covered into the Treasury; the
use of appropriations for the purchase of subsistence stores without
waiting for the beginning of the fiscal year for which the appropriation
is made; for additional appropriations for the collection of torpedo
material; for increased appropriations for the manufacture of arms; for
relieving the various States from indebtedness for arms charged to them
during the rebellion; for dropping officers from the rolls of the Army
without trial for the offense of drawing pay more than once for the same
period; for the discouragement of the plan to pay soldiers by check,
and for the establishment of a professorship of rhetoric and English
literature at West Point.
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