Special Message

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I have, in a former message, stated to the Congress my belief that our Army need not be large, but that it should in every part be brought to the highest point of efficiency. The Secretary of War has called to my attention the fact that the act approved February 2, 1901, which accomplished so much to promote this result, failed to meet the needs of one staff department, in which all of our people are peculiarly interested and of which they have a right to demand a high degree of excellence. I refer to the Medical Department. Not only does a competent medical service by safeguarding the health of the Army contribute greatly to its power, but it gives to the families of the nation a guaranty that their fathers, brothers, and sons who are wounded in battle or sicken in the camp shall have not only skilled medical aid, but also that prompt and well-ordered attention to all their wants which can come only by an adequate and trained personnel.

I am satisfied that the Medical Corps is much too small for the needs of the present Army and therefore very much too small for its successful expansion in time of war to meet the needs of an enlarged Army, and, in addition, to furnish the volunteer service a certain number of officers trained in medical administration. A bill which, in the opinion of the Secretary of War, of the late Secretary of War, and of the General Staff of the Army, supplies these deficiencies was introduced at the last session of Congress and is now before you. I am also advised that it meets the cordial approval of the medical profession of the country. It provides an organization which, when compared with that of other nations, does not seem to err on the side of excessive liberality, but which is believed to be sufficient. I earnestly recommend its passage by the present Congress. If the Medical Department is left as it is, no amount of wisdom or efficiency in its administration would prevent a complete breakdown in the event of a serious war.

I transmit herewith a memorandum which has been prepared for me by the Surgeon-General of the Army, and also the remarks of the former and of the present Secretary of War with reference to this bill.

It is reported to me that the Ordnance Corps is in a position of disadvantage; that its personnel is inadequate to the performance of the duties with which it is charged, and that under existing conditions it is unable to recruit its numbers with officers of the class necessary for the conduct of its very technical work. It is unnecessary for me to lay stress upon the desirability of having the design and manufacture of the material with which we are to fight in competent and sufficient hands, as there is no difference of opinion as to the intention of all concerned to have provided a proper supply of weapons, munitions, engines of war, equal in conception and construction to any in the world, and superior in any respects in which by skill and attention we may be able to compass such superiority.

The greatly increased utilization of the exact sciences in ordnance construction requires a larger personnel for their application, and the process of its selection should be severely and continuously discriminating, under conditions offering stimulus sufficient to cause officers of proper capacity, of whom it appears there are plenty, to wish to subject themselves to it. A bill embodying the necessary provisions and involving no radical departure from existing methods has been prepared by the War Department. I think it should be passed.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.