Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 209, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1916 — INDIANA TROOPS ARE LEARNING TO SHOOT [ARTICLE]

INDIANA TROOPS ARE LEARNING TO SHOOT

Practice Daily With a Hundred Rounds of Ammunition, Making Many Good Scores. Mercedes, Tex., Aug. 30.—The Indiana soldiers are leamnig to shoot. Every morning they go to the rifle range and practice with 100 rounds of ammunition each, and they are making good scores. When they fame here more than- 40 per cent had never fired a gun, and these are receiving special instructions in handling arms. Revolver practice by the infantry and the artillery takes place Friday. The machine gun companies participate in a regulation drill each day, and in a short time they will begin practicing with blank ammunition. The Indiana field artillery is also getting into fine shape. Major R. H. Tyndall has put the batteries through considerable marching. Saturday the artillery got seventy horses, seventytwo on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday a sufficient ..umber will arrive to equip all the batteries, and then the batteries will go through every evolution of war except firing on an enemy. "An order from the war department received today says that Battery D, the new Ft. Wayne organization, will come to Llano Grande as soon as Battery B, the Purdue student organization, is mustered out of the service. But this is indefinite, the artillery officers say, because they have no information that Battery B is to be mustered out. They believe Battery D will come here, regardless of the disposition of Battery B. The sending of Companies A and B to the river for guard duty has been delayed about two weeks as the roads are impassible to get supplies to the companies from Harlingen. Major Glenn Van Auken, brigade adjutant, Indiana infantry, has received a leave of absence to visit his home.

While it seems improbable that the solid south will be tyoken into this year, there is evidence enough to show there is a-strong anti-adminis-tration sentiment throughout that section. This is especially true in the great state of Texas, where it is currently reported that if the voters expressed their real sentiment, Hughes would get the electors from that State. This is because of the administration’s Mexican policy, which is vigorously condemned, not only in Texas but along the entire border. Proximity to the situation has enabled the border states to properly measure the fatuous administration policy in dealing with our southern neighbors. States like Kentucky, Tennessee, Maryland and West Virginia, where there is strong republican sentiment, are likely to express this anti-administration sentiment, and surprises in this section may be anticipated. Missouri and Oklahoma, two states ordinarily regarded as democratic, are also seething with anti-administration sentiment, and their registration in the republican column may be regarded as entirely possible.