In a great industrial civilization such as ours we may just as well face the fact that there is a constant tendency to do away with, to eliminate, those qualities which make a man a good soldier. It should be the steady object of every legislator, of every executive officer, and above all of you gentlemen who have to do with the National Guard, to try to encourage those qualities, to try to counteract the tendency toward their elimination. Every officer of the National Guard should train his men the whole time as if he were training them with a view to possible action, so that the men under him will be trained by him to have those habits of body and mind which will render them formidable as soldiers in the field. You should try to train your men so they can live in the open; train them so they will know what cover is, so they will be able to take advantage of it, so they will know how to march and march well; and you should realize the relative importance of what it is that the men under you learn, that as war is carried on nowadays, ninety per cent of the ordinary work done either on the parade-ground or in the armory, either by a militia regiment or a regular regiment, amounts to nothing whatever in the way of training except so far as the incidental effect it has in accustoming the men to act together and to obey; but they are not going to fight shoulder to shoulder when they get out into the field. It is absolutely not of the slightest consequence what their alignment is, but is of vital consequence that they shall know how to take cover, how to shoot, and how to make themselves at home under any circumstances. We have such a small regular army that you men of the National Guard have upon you a heavy responsibility. I want to say that while it is incumbent upon you to take your duties seriously and do them with all your heart, if you do even that you do more good to the Nation than any equal body of citizens to be found in our country. TO THE STUDENTS OF THE MANASSAS, VIRGINIA, INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, AT THE WHITE HOUSE, FEBRUARY 14, 1906 _Mr. Hale_; _Ladies and Gentlemen_: