Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 169, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1917 — Military Training Camps Association, Central Dept. [ARTICLE]

Military Training Camps Association, Central Dept.

Chicago, Aug. 1, 1917. (Bulletin to All Branch Chairmen.) At a recent meeitng of the executive committee of your association held in Washington, July 23, it was voted that we recruit for the field service of the American A.mbulance in France. —It was also voted torecruit for the aviation corps, which is in urgent need of some 100,000 men. This is a field of most interesting and popular activity on which information is being obtained. You will be particularly pleased to know that the results of the central department far exceeded those of the east, northeast, southeast and southern departments, with the western department yet to be heard from. The branch chairmen throughout this department procured applications from over five and a half times thequota and the average far exceeded* any single state outside of this department.

The central department camps have all been visited by a committee from these headquarters and have been found to be in exceptionally satisfactory condition in regard to all military, sanitary and other essential features. The men are well satisfied that they are receiving hard and intelligent _ training and the spirit of co-operation among them is simply wonderful. The camps are a tremendous success. The plans under which the present camps were started distinctly stated that out of each company of 167 men, only 45 would be chosen as officers of the first increment of the national army. In addition to these others would be commissioned if considered suitable. ou will, of course, see by this that many who have attended the camp can not be selected and you are warned that many who return from camp are making every effort to defend their positions and we have been advised that in several cases they have suggested -favoritism and other silly charges to cover their own deficiencies. We wish you to know that we have seen the system by which men are being discharged from the training camp and that it is approved most heartily. From the very nature of the life and death affair, and the very fact that the army is on record before the people, we are sure that the best selection is being made as nar as is humanly possible. The writer had conferences with many of the departments in Washington and I wish I could convey to you the seriousness of the entire situation. It was brought out that the spring offense which gained so small an amount of territory compared with the ultimate gain necessary to win the war, was the offensive that has been planned for almost two years and the results from the standpoint of military importance were almost nothing. It is said that there were over 600,000 casualties in one month in the allied armies which might be compared in our minds to the casualty list of only 45,000 at the battle of Gettysburg. Many of these things do not creep into the newspapers. One enlightening paragraph was in the public press recently in which army officers returning from France were quoted as saying that the Germans’ line could not be broken by the present allied forces. Russia, of course, is an absolutely unknown quantity and may collapse completely at any moment. Instead of the allies gaining the ascendency in the air it is conceded in inside circles that the Germans are actually gaining in aviation. The reason that America is asked to go into this aviation program to the extent of $640,000,000 as a starter and to enlist from 100,000 to 200,000 men as a starter, is because there are no more men left in France of proper age, education and other qualifications to put in training for aviation. It is sntated that over 4,000 allied machines were put out of commission in one month and that all’ the auto repair shops had to be commandeered to keep any reasonable number of aeroplanes going. You have been noting in the papers that many of the younger men in the training c.amps have been recommended to go into aviation. Many of these men have been sent to Canada simply because Canada has no more young men that they can put into aviation and they cannot even utilize the training cantos that they have built for the purpose. should be nothing discouraging in these facts and nothing that should nqt be given wide publicity. The difficulty in this country is that we are not, giving this matter serious enough thought and a great majority of people are not working hard enough to win the war. That attitude must be changed and the branch chairmen can do much toward changing the situation in their own communities. We will never win the war until every American starts to fight. A good slogan to use is “Have you, yourself, declared war against the Kaiser?” Millions of people in this country have not, and until they do, and until they talk war, think war and have their entire communities doing likewise, we will not “make the world safe for democracy.” The military training camps association has become, especially in this department, the most widespread and probably the most powerful patriotic organization i n th e U. S. The sacrifices that are being individually made by members of the various committees are tremendously appreciated, but are nowheres near as great as the sacrifices that have been made by the men who have already entered the officrs’ training camps or by those now being drafted into the army. .