Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 172, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1916 — ANSWERING CALL TO JOIN COLORS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ANSWERING CALL TO JOIN COLORS

From Office and Workshop Men Respond to the President’s Summons. WAYS OF WAR ARE CHANGED Assembling of Militia Businesslike Proceeding Showing Lessons of Efficiency Drawn From European War Are Not Unheeded.

Washington.—The call to the colors drew men from the filing case to the dog tent; from the card index life to living in the open. The mobilization was on. The troop trains moved; the streets were filled with marching regiments; the rumble of caissons was heard in the city parks; and horsemen clattered in orderly rows while guidons drooped in summer rain. The tocsin of the telephone had tinkled in the heart of the skyscraper; the telegraph had brought a citizen soldiery back from its journeys, from its business concerns, even from weddldg trips, for General Funston.had wired for militia to patrol the Rio Grande. This is no repeat of a' fateful August nearly two years ago in lands across the seas, but the story of June. 1916, when preparedness became action and the military camps were peopled overnight by hosts in khaki and olive drab. The Plattsburg idea was translated into fact and the rooky changed from novice to one whose trade is war.

Infantry, artillery, cavalry emerged from the offices and the stores. The grim armories which in ordinary days seem like deserted Norman strongholds having nothing in common with their surroundings became centers of a hew and vital interest, where thousands of armed men were being gathered in efficient readiness. How it all brought back those days ,of the Span-ish-American war when the cry to “Remember the Maine” stirred a patriot people and men scented battle on land and sea!

Ways of War Changed. They assembled to arm, not knowing at what time war might be declared upon Mexico and as eager to do their duty as they were against the forces of old Spain. _

The ways of war have greatly changed since this country last gave ear to martial strains. So it happened that every soldier, every accoutrement, every wagon or piece of artillery which passed through city or village streets or even along the broad highway was weighed and balanced in the scale of efficiency. These are days when every man and every woman is a student of the game of Mars. The newspapers and the magazines have presented thousands of pictures of maneuvers and battles and incidents from the great theaters of the eastern and the western fronts in Europe. War has shown its horrors in the moving-picture shows, and even actual battles have found their way to the screen. Military critics are everywhere. Martial Ideal Aroused.

The Spanish-American war came with a rush; the mobilization of this June was the close of months of study of when and how and where. The martial Ideal of a people was seen in the massing of troops, the moving of trains, the mustering of Industrial resources. Everywhere men sprang to their new job of soldiering eager and alert. The veterans of the National Guard were the first recruits to respond, for after serving for seven years in days of peace many were glad enough to pursue the hope of active service.

It was a businesslike proceeding, this assembling of the 50,000 or 60,000 of the militia for the border. First, the call to the armories and the selection of those who could go at once; then the packing up, the buckling together of canvas bags, the tightening of girths, the saddling of steeds commandeered from commerce; the methodical entraining, and then cheerr and tears. The galleries of every armory were filled with the mothers, wives and sweethearts. Woman, when the warning of war comes, is both proud and sad. She weeps for the going of a man to fight and smiles within that

he wants to go. And so in the dim armories sat the women in their sorrow and their pride, watching the routine of preparation and peering closely for loved ones busied in the almost endless task of making ready. There are no Spartan mothers these days, but two years contemplation of efficiency has developed their spirit in American women, all seeing even in their anxiety. Bristling With! Bayonets. In cities like New York there was to be seen everywhere the sign of martial rule. Sentries patrolled in front of the armories and the state soldiers were instructed not to leave the buildings without passes. Once out in-the streets they: were walking signs of the swift change which had passed over the community, as they strode along with their cloth-clad canteens, their holsters and their taut belts. Newsboys followed in their wake calling the “Extras I” and showing pages bristling with bayonets. What mobilization means is familiar to all, for the picture of the sudden gathering of the armed forces of Europe Is even now fresh upon the public The movement of the

militia conjures up visions of Berlin, when one morning civilians ceased to be, as they went methodical wise to certain lockers, and presently came back into the world again clad in smoke-hued uniforms, crowned with spiked helmets and German precision, and all duly numbered and marked for Identification when killed, all fully aware where to go and familiar with what was to be done. There was not the same deadly accuracy in the mobilization of the American militia, and yet so well had some of the lessons of preparedness been learned that the troops on the whole were probably more quickly sent on their way then ever before. Mule Still a Factor. One of the developments of modern warfare is to cheat the army mule out of his occupation, and yet he thrives in the United States. He is still a factor in the American army despite

the development of the self-propelled truck. The forage for animals and the hundreds of thousands of gallons of water required for their drink is in itself a large item of the camp budget. Conditions have changed much sine® the Spanish-American war, when the laying of camps and the proper sanitation and drainage were often matters more of theory than of practice. The heavy mortality among American soldiers in the Spanish-American war, many of whom never got beyond the boundaries of their own country, brought home A lesson in hygiene never to be forgotten. Spanish bullets killed only a few; typhoid slew hosts. Every soldier who goes into camp these days must be Inoculated against typhoid. The rookies undergo the treatment cheerfully and every guardsman recognizes its value. So much for externals, having to do with the welfare of th® citizen soldiers. The fact that they are to be well cared for during their period of training is an important factor in their efficiency. The greatest benefit to them, however, is the feeling that

throughout the country the business community and the employer generally have come to realize more and more the importance of having a citizenry trained to arms. Leaders in the world of commerce themselves have freely left their work to enroll under the national banner. The militia now has the support of the business communities and men are encouraged not only to enlist In it but are told that they will lose neither their chances of promotion nor their vacations by so doing.. When the order for mobilization was given therefore, representative business men and corpbrations at once informed all employees called to the colors that their salaries would be paid in full during' their time of service. With minds freed from financial worry the soldiers of the states may attend to their patriotic duties with the Stars and Stripes.

Answering the Call.