y might be otherwise. It is common to see the
boss's nephew or his son get a good spot in the office and then
rise like a rocket, even though he is a third-rater. And it is not
less common to see a straw boss in a factory favor the man whom he
thinks might grease the wheels for him on the outside. But in the
armed establishment, favoritism on any grounds, and particularly
on such treacherous grounds as these, will destroy the foundations
of work and of control.

The armed establishment has its own body of law. Therein, too, it
differs from any civilian autonomy except the state itself. The
code is intended to enable a uniform standard of treatment to all
individuals in the regulating of all interior affairs. The code is
not rigid; its provisions are not absolute. It specifies the
general nature of offenses against society, and special offenses
against the good of the service. But, except for the more serious
offenses, particularly those which by their nature also violate
the civil code, it does not flatly prescribe trial and punishment.
Military law, in this respect, has more latitude, and is more
congenial, than civil law covering minor offenders. Rarely
arbitrary in its workings, it premises the use of corrective good
judgment at all times. It regards force as an instrument only to
be used for conserving the general good of the establishment. The
essential power behind the force is something spiritual--the will
and conscience of the great majority, expressing itself through
the action of one or several of their number. Its major object is
not punishment of the wrong-doer but protection of the interests
of the dutiful. This view of military law is four-square with the
basic principle of all action within the armed services--_that in
all cases the best policy is one which depends for its workings on
the sense of duty in men toward each other, and thereby
strengthens that sense through its operations._

Put in these terms, the attitude of the service toward the problem of
correction as a means of promoting the welfare of the general
establishment obviously reposes a tremendous burst in the justice and
goodwill of the average officer. It would be useless to blink the
fact. But there is this to be said unalterably in favor of the
military system's way of handling things: If the organization of the
whole