An Autobiography

men at the time in Chicago, Mr. Curtis said: “You younger men can, if you think right, refuse to support Mr. Blaine, but I am too old a Republican, and have too long been associated with the party, to break with it now.” Not only did I never entertain after the convention, but I never during the convention or at any other time, entertained the intention alleged in the quotation in question. I discussed the whole situation with Mr. Lodge before going to the convention, and we had made up our minds that if the nomination of Mr. Blaine was fairly made we would with equal good faith support him.

Endnotes

1. One of our best naval officers sent me the following letter, after the above had appeared:⁠—

   I note in your Autobiography now being published in the Outlook that you refer to the reasons which led you to establish a physical test for the Army, and to the action you took (your 100-mile ride) to prevent the test being abolished. Doubtless you did not know the following facts:

   1. The first annual navy test of 50 miles in three days was subsequently reduced to 25 miles in two days in each quarter.

   2. This was further reduced to 10 miles each month, which is the present “test,” and there is danger lest even this utterly insufficient test be abolished.

   I enclose a copy of a recent letter to the Surgeon General which will show our present deplorable condition and the worse condition into which we are slipping back.

   The original test of 50 miles in three days did a very great deal of good. It decreased by thousands of dollars the money expended on street car fare, and by a much greater sum the amount expended over the bar. It eliminated a number of the wholly unfit; it taught officers to walk; it forced them to learn the care of their feet and that of their men; and it improved their general health and was rapidly forming a taste for physical exercise.

   The enclosed letter ran in part as follows:⁠—

   I am returning under separate cover The Soldiers’ Foot and the Military Shoe.

   The book contains knowledge of a practical character that is valuable for the men who have to march, who have suffered from foot troubles, and who must avoid them in order to attain efficiency.

   The words in capitals express, according to my idea, the gist of the whole matter as regards military men.

   The army officer whose men break down on test gets a black eye. The one whose men show efficiency in this respect gets a bouquet.

   To such men the book is invaluable. There is no danger that they will neglect it. They will actually learn it, for exactly the same reasons that our fellows learn the gunnery instructions⁠—or did learn them before they were withdrawn and burned.

   But, I have not been able to interest a single naval officer in this fine book. They will look at the pictures and say it is a good book, but they won’t read it. The marine officers, on the contrary, are very much interested, because they have to teach their men to care for their feet and they must know how to care for their own. But the naval officers feel no such necessity, simply because their men do not have to demonstrate their efficiency by practice marches, and they themselves do not have to do a stunt that will show up their own ignorance and inefficiency in the matter.

   For example, some time ago I was talking with some chaps about shoes⁠—the necessity of having them long enough and wide enough, etc., and one of them said: “I have no use for such shoes, as I never walk except when I have to, and any old shoes do for the 10-mile-a-month stunt,” so there you are!

   When the first test was ordered, Edmonston (Washington shoe man) told me that he sold more real walking shoes to naval officers in three months than he had in the three preceding years. I know three officers who lost both big-toe nails after the first test, and another who walked nine miles in practice with a pair of heavy walking shoes that were too small and was laid up for three days⁠—could not come to the office. I know plenty of men who after the first test had to borrow shoes from larger men until their feet “went down” to their normal size.

   This test may have been a bit too strenuous for old hearts (of men who had never taken any exercise), but it was excellent as a matter of instruction and training of handling feet⁠—and in an emergency (such as we soon may have in Mexico) sound hearts are not much good if the feet won’t stand.

   However, the 25-mile test in two days each quarter answered the same purpose, for the reason that 12.5 miles will produce sore feet with bad shoes, and sore feet and lame muscles even with good shoes, if there has been no practice marching.

   It was the necessity of doing 12.5 more miles on the second day with sore feet and lame muscles that made ’em sit up and take notice⁠—made ’em practice walking, made ’em avoid street cars, buy proper shoes, show some curiosity about sox and the care of the feet in general.

   All this passed out with the introduction of the last test of 10 miles a month. As one fellow said: “I can do that in sneakers”⁠—but he couldn’t if the second day involved a tramp on the sore feet.

   The point is that whereas formerly officers had to practice walking a bit and give some attention to proper footgear, now they don’t have to, and the natural consequence is that they don’t do it.

   There are plenty of officers who do not walk any more than is necessary to reach a street car that will carry them from their residences to their offices. Some who have motors do not