ength of the navy to
150,000 did not provide for any additional officers above the rank of
lieutenant. The increase in the enlisted force amounts to 57,000, the
authorized strength at the time of the law's passage being 93,000. Based
on the increase, the allowance of officers would be 747 lieutenants and
954 lieutenants junior grade and ensigns.

The increase in the enlisted strength of the Marine Corps from 17,400 to
30,000, or by 12,600, also gives an additional allowance of 504
officers to the corps, which, under the bill, are distributed among the
grades of major, captain, first lieutenant and second lieutenant.

The Marine Corps is one of the most picturesque military organizations
in the world. There is, probably, no other such body of trained
soldiery. While they are under the control of the Navy Department, they
can be detached from that branch of the service and assigned for duty
with any other branch of the military forces of the country.

POLICEMEN OF THE SEA.

They are the policemen of the sea; they are artillerymen, infantrymen,
cavalry, engineers, and soldiers, first, last and all the time. They are
the first troops in action, and there is no restriction as to the kind
of military duty they are called upon to perform.

The Marines served on shore and on board vessels of the navy throughout
the Revolutionary War, two battalions having been authorized by the
Continental Congress November 10, 1775. The present organization really
dates from July, 1798, when Congress passed an act approving the
establishment of an organization to be known as the Marine Corps,
consisting of 1 major, 4 captains, 16 first lieutenants, 12 second
lieutenants, 48 sergeants, 48 corporals, 32 drums and fifes and 720
privates.

Every one of the 15,000 men who composed the more than a century old
Marine Corps when the war broke out was ready and on his toes when the
call for action came. There was nothing in the way of scientific
preparedness that got by them. In the matter of trench helmets, for
instance, when it was time for the American nation to come to the front
in the great world war, the Marines had a helmet so much of an
improvement on the one used by the Allies that there was no comparison.

Armored motorcars, likewise, of the most improved type, belonged to the
Marine Corps when the call for action came. These cars are capable of
making 45 miles an hour, and there were plenty of them for service in
the Marine Corps.