The various Negro papers in the country are very generally insisting that if the Negro soldiers are to be enlisted, Negro officers should be appointed to command them.

One zealous paper is clamoring for the appointment, immediately, by the President, of a Negro Major-General.

The readers of _The Independent_ know very well that during the civil war there were enlisted in the United States army 200,000 Negro soldiers under white officers, the highest position assigned to a black man being that of first sergeant, or of regimental sergeant-major.

The Negroes were allowed to wear chevrons, but not shoulder straps or epaulets.

Although four Negro regiments have been incorporated in the regular army, and have rendered exceptionally effective service on the plains and elsewhere for a whole generation, there are to-day no Negro officers in the service.