Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 301, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1916 — ARMY HEADS HOLD GUARD WORTHLESS [ARTICLE]

ARMY HEADS HOLD GUARD WORTHLESS

Against Good Troops Militia Would Not Know What Hit Them, Says Major General Wood. \ " l The mobilization of chc national guard for border service was described as a military failure, emphasizing the urgent necessity of volunteer system as the nation’s reliance for self-defense, in statements that have been made by Major General Wood and other men that stand high in the army. All of the army heads advocatec universal training. General Wooc declared that the country was utterly defenseless against a well organazed foe: that the mobilization was tragedy, and that if (the guardsmen had met good troops “they would never have known what hit them.” General Hugh Scott stated that the lessons drawn from the present war proved that in case of war with a first-class power, the United States

would need immediately a trained force of 1,500,000 men, with another 1,500,000 available. On the other side of the question, Walter L. Fisher, former secretary of the interior, who opposed universal service, though he stood for adequate defense measures and suggested a regular army of 500,000. He thought that the pay of the privates should be raised to S3O a month in order to make the service more attractive. Major General Wood said that the Mexico experience, although it showed that the present militia is a tragedy, was worth all it cost, simply because it showed the condition of un preparedness that we are in. When asked what we should do with the national guard, Mi. Wood answed:

“It should be replaced as rapidly as possible with men trained under a universal system. When the system has been well started, I would drop the national guard entirely from any scheme of defense, although we want every officer and man Of them in the new plan. But it must be a straighout federal force. J

General Wood outlined his own plan for universal service, which, in effect, would be a combination of the Chamberlin bill system, an adaptation of the Australian system and the French general staff plan. Hi? scheme would provide that all physically fit men would be given six months’ training during their nineteenth year, passing then into the organized reserve, to be available for the first line of duty between the ages of 21 and 22, after which they Would be passed into the unorganized reserve until the age of Th® result would be a constant force of trained men with full equipment of more than 4,000,000 in addition to a standing army of 250,000, composed of men Who were professional soldiers by personal inclination.