But the Medical Department is not the only department for which increased provision should be made.  The rate of pay for the officers should be greatly increased; there is no higher type of citizen than the American regular officer, and he should have a fair reward for his admirable work.  There should be a relatively even greater increase in the pay for the enlisted men.  In especial provision should be made for establishing grades equivalent to those of warrant officers in the Navy which should be open to the enlisted men who serve sufficiently long and who do their work well.  Inducements should be offered sufficient to encourage really good men to make the Army a life occupation.  The prime needs of our present Army is to secure and retain competent noncommissioned officers.  This difficulty rests fundamentally on the question of pay.  The noncommissioned officer does not correspond with an unskilled laborer; he corresponds to the best type of skilled workman or to the subordinate official in civil institutions.  Wages have greatly increased in outside occupations in the last forty years and the pay of the soldier, like the pay of the officers, should be proportionately increased.  The first sergeant of a company, if a good man, must be one of such executive and administrative ability, and such knowledge of his trade, as to be worth far more than we at present pay him.  The same is true of the regimental sergeant major.  These men should be men who had fully resolved to make the Army a life occupation and they should be able to look forward to ample reward; while only men properly qualified should be given a chance to secure these final rewards.  The increase over the present pay need not be great in the lower grades for the first one or two enlistments, but the increase should be marked for the noncommissioned officers of the upper grades who serve long enough to make it evident that they intend to stay permanently in the Army, while additional pay should be given for high qualifications in target practice.  The position of warrant officer should be established and there should be not only an increase of pay, but an increase of privileges and allowances and dignity, so as to make the grade open to noncommissioned officers capable of filling them desirably from every standpoint.  The rate of desertion in our Army now in time of peace is alarming.  The deserter should be treated by public opinion as a man guilty of the greatest crime; while on the other hand the man who serves steadily in the Army should be treated as what he is, that is, as preeminently one of the best citizens of this Republic.  After twelve years’ service in the Army, my own belief is that the man should be given a preference according to his ability for certain types of office over all civilian applicants without examination.  This should also apply, of course, to the men who have served twelve years in the Navy.  A special corps should be provided to do the manual labor now necessarily demanded of the privates themselves.