When every detail is prescribed the officer has no initiative, his interest is diminished, he thinks less, exercises less responsibility, and his work is not so good. If that policy be kept up long enough the subordinate officer will never do anything without positive instructions. An officer who exercises no judgment is of no value in war. [Sidenote: The regiment a team] But absolute liberty for the subordinate to do as he pleases is impracticable. The regiment is a team of which his unit is only one member. There must be team play and every member must know and be able to do his part. The company must be taught certain things or it will not fit into the battalion team; the battalion must be fitted for the regimental team. Each larger unit must have time for training and has a right to demand that each lower unit which forms a part of it shall have accomplished its own special work on time and be ready to play its part in the work of the larger unit. [Sidenote: The colonel] The colonel is responsible for the training of his regiment. He should allot the time, supervise the work and see that every member of the team is ready. He is the best judge of the requirements of his regiment. But the colonel should do this so as to leave all the liberty practicable to subordinate commanders. [Sidenote: Orders and restriction] If all our captains were competent and reliable this work of the colonel would be very simple. But there are a few captains, unfortunately, who are far from the best, whose long suit at drill is “place rest” and having a sergeant drill the company in Butts’ Manual. While more restrictions are necessary for such captains these restrictions do not hamper the others; they merely prohibit things the right kind of captain would never think of doing or require what he would never think of omitting. [Sidenote: Time to organizations] Of course most of the instruction time belongs to the companies; it is in them that most of the work must be done. Four well trained companies under a competent major can be made into a well trained battalion in a very few days, and the time required for each higher unit is less than that for the one next below. [Sidenote: Time to target practice] To the company belongs all the indoor season. In dividing the rest of the year for the northern part of the U. S. I believe that the available time from April 1st to October 1st should be allotted in the proportion of 4 days to the company for each 2 to the battalion and 1 to the regiment. The month of October should be devoted to maneuvers and to work in higher units. The time spent on the target range is excluded in computing the available time but no company should be allowed to devote more than two weeks to target practice exclusive of field firing; of the latter we can hardly get too much. It is appreciated that conditions at various posts make different schedules necessary.