“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 do so much.  They take no exercise.  They take cocktails instead and are getting beefy and ‘ponchy,’ and something should be done to remedy this state of affairs.

“It would not be necessary if service opinion required officers so to order their lives that it would be common knowledge that they were ‘hard,’ in order to avoid the danger of being selected out.

“We have no such service opinion, and it is not in process of formation.  On the contrary, it is known that the ‘Principal Dignitaries’ unanimously advised the Secretary to abandon all physical tests.  He, a civilian, was wise enough not to take the advice.

“I would like to see a test established that would oblige officers to take sufficient exercise to pass it without inconvenience.  For the reasons given above, 20 miles in two days every other month would do the business, while 10 miles each month does not touch it, simply because nobody has to walk on ‘next day’ feet.  As for the proposed test of so many hours ‘exercise’ a week, the flat foots of the pendulous belly muscles are delighted.  They are looking into the question of pedometers, and will hang one of these on their wheezy chests and let it count every shuffling step they take out of doors.

“If we had an adequate test throughout 20 years, there would at the end of that time be few if any sacks of blubber at the upper end of the list; and service opinion against that sort of thing would be established.”

These tests were kept during my administration.  They were afterwards abandoned; not through perversity or viciousness; but through weakness, and inability to understand the need of preparedness in advance, if the emergencies of war are to be properly met, when, or if, they arrive.

In no country with an army worth calling such is there a chance for a man physically unfit to stay in the service.  Our countrymen should understand that every army officer—­and every marine officer—­ought to be summarily removed from the service unless he is able to undergo far severer tests than those which, as a beginning, I imposed.  To follow any other course is to put a premium on slothful incapacity, and to do the gravest wrong to the Nation.