supports it on any such
ground as that it is the principal benefactor of the soldier. The
Commission alone could no more support our hospitals than it could the
universe. But the homely adage, "It is best to have two strings to your
bow," applies wonderfully to the case. In practical life men act upon
this maxim. They like to have an adjunct to the best-working machinery,
a sort of reserved power. Every sensible person sees that our mail
arrangements furnish to the whole people admirable facilities.
Nevertheless, we like to have an express, and occasionally to send
letters and packages by it. When the children are sick, there is nothing
so good as the advice of the trusted family physician and the unwearied
care of the mother. Yet when the physician has done his work and gone
his way, and when the mother is worn out by days of anxiety and nights
of watching, we deem it a great blessing, if there is a kind neighbor
who will come in, not to assume the work, but to help it on a little.
The Commission, looking at the hospitals and the armies from a different
point of view, sees much that another overlooks, and in an emergency,
when all help is too little, brings fresh aid that is a priceless
blessing. To the plain, substantial volume of public appropriations it
adds the beautiful supplement of private benefactions. That is all that
it pretends to do.

There are some special reflections that bear upon the point which we are
considering. This war was sprung upon an unwarlike people. The officers
of Government, when they entered upon their work, had no thought of the
gigantic burdens which have fallen upon their shoulders. Since the war
began, Government, like everybody else, has had to learn new duties, and
to learn them amid the stress and perplexity of a great conflict. And
among other things, it has been obliged, in some respects, to recast its
medical regulations to meet the prodigious enlargement of its medical
work. Beyond a doubt, much help, which, on account of this imperfection
of the medical code itself, or of the inexperience of many who
administered it, was needed by our hospitals at the commencement of the
war, is not needed now, and much help that is needed now may not, if the
war lasts, be needed in the future. But it takes time to move the
machinery of a great state. And when any change is to become the
permanent law of public action, it ought to take both time and thought
to effect it. You do not wish to alte