Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 198, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1917 — VOLUNTEER SPIRIT IS A LIVING THING [ARTICLE]

VOLUNTEER SPIRIT IS A LIVING THING

War Department Gratified Over Record of Four MonthsLßecruiting for Service. 1,750,000 MEN PASSED UPON Regular Army Officers Urge Necessity of Early Dispatch of Large Number of Troops to Training Camps in France. By EDWARD B. CLARK. ' Washington.—War department officials are expressing their gratification tat the record of four months’ recruiting lor the different branches of the service. The enlistment books show that the volunteer spirit In the United States is a living thing. I Recruiting figures compiled from official sources show that In the last four months more than 1,750.000 men have volunteered for the military and naval services of the country. This does not mean that this number of men have been accepted for service, but it means that volunteers to the number given have tried to get into the ranks either of the army or the navy. For every man accepted by the army, navy, marine corps, the National Guard, the officers’ reserve corps and the various reserves there is official sanction for the word that at least two men willing and anxious to serve their country were rejected for physical or other reasons, for every one man that succeeded in passing the examinations. The regular army and the National Guard, according to the last figures, have each gained in four months’ time about 185,000 mett Everyone of these men was a volunteer. The rejections numbered something over one million. During the same period of four months the navy has taken in for fighting purposes about 88,000 men. More than 150,000 young Americans have applied for a chance to enter the various officers’ training camps throughout the couhtry. The marine corps virtually is recruited to its full war strength and every man of them is a volunteer. Plays No Favorites.

The war department officials In Washington believe that the selective conscription plan for a great army is the best that can be adopted, because it plays no favorites. It makes every man of military age, no matter what his social position or his wealth, take his chance with every other man. The officials have tried to keep the volunteer spirit in everything that has gone to make up the new National army, and seemingly they have succeeded. They say that the selected man will be considered a volunteer. It is pretty well known that hundreds of thousands of young Americans, if they had not known that selective service was coming, would have volunteered for the regulars, the National Guard, or the navy. The fact that young men saw a chance to serve in the new army, the war department officials believe, kept many of them from entering the established services. It is held, however, that nearly 2,000,000 men having shown their willingness to enter the regulars or the Guard is proof enough that the volunteer spirit Is still vibrant. Here is the table indicating the number of men who have volunteered for the American service in four months: Branch. Applied Accepted. Regular army , 540.000 180,000 National Guard 540.000 180,000 Navy 220,000 <o,ooo Marine corps 45.000 —, 15.000 Training camps 150,000 50,000 Naval militia 75.000 25.000 Army reserve 25,000 15,000 Naval reserve 150,000 50,000 Totals 1,750,000 590.000 Ranking officers of the United States army, ranking in position and in military sagacity, have come to take the position of the French army men in the matter of the necessity of the early dispatch of large numbers of American troops to the training camps back of the battle line. A definite plan has been submitted [giving the number of divisions that should be sent to France and fixing the latest time limit for their arrival abroad. It Is not best to give the numbers of men asked for, nor to fix definitely the time when the army men hope they can be put into the place of greatest advantage to the war cause, but there is no harm in saying that the more active minded army men are asking that the order for “double time” be given. ’ ' Speed Up Preparation. There has been an acceleration of the pace of preparation in the army and the navy departments, but things in the military service are comparative as they are in civil life. If the quickspirited ones of the service have their way the Germans will feel the American hand and handlyenades with much greater force and in much greater numbers than the wise men of the kaiser’s militaristic machine had any thought would or could be lse case. Little by little the civil authorities In the land and sea departments have been yielding to the advice, occasionally. emphasized by the spur pricks, of the soldier element. There was a disposition on the part of civilians for some time to point out obstacles supposWly In the way of quick support for the allied Unes of Europe. All that army officers had to do was to point ✓ to the campaign rule which provides

means for troops to surmount or to get around obstacles. There is a very distinct understanding in Washington that the transport problem is in a fair way of quick solution. With this problem solved there remains the problem of supplies, but in this matter also hope has come in “great quantities.” Then there is the matter of the preliminary training of the recruits who in numbers have joined the regulars and the National Guard. In every newly formed regular regiment there is something more than a nucleus of veterans. Army men say that green men can be mafic into soldiers twice as rapidly when they have a battalion of seasoned men to train and to rally about. The trained regulars who, with the recruits make up the new’ regiments, are of course in better shape for immediate fighting than are the National Guardsmen, no matter how long the state troopers may have been in the service, but with daily drill and instruction it will not be long before the Guardsmen are regulars. Therefore, the training of the Guard recruits ought not to take much longer than that of the rookies who have joined the regulars. Make Rapid Progress. Reports to the war department show that the troops now in France have progressed rapidly in the lessons of the school of the new warfare. It is pretty well known in Washington that army officers now abroad believe that one week in camp in France is w’orth a month in camp in the United States. This fact has quickened the desire of army officers, and presumably that of the civilian authorities, to increase as rapidly as possible the number of troops ndw preparing for actual conflict. While some persons are still trying to delay democracy’s w’ork and thereby gratify the Germans, there seemingly

is no chance that they will be able to “submarine” our transports before they leave port. There Is only a ismall backing in congress for the attempt which is being made to prevent the sending of National Guardsmen and the new National army to France. Of course If this attempt should be successful the w’ar would be lost unless the allies could win it for themselves. Officials believe that there is virtually no chance that the Supreme court on a constitutional question would decide that the members of the National Guard and of the new army must stay on this side of the water. An attempt to take a test case before the court is, however, one of the blocking schemes. ' The training of the National Guard troops will be quickened if the war department does not yield to the demands of the politicians and make brigadier generals out of unserviceable civilians. The brigadier general under the new fighting rules must be a man of military parts. Washington looks for quick results in the National Guard camps and as goes without saying in the camps of the regulars. The word is for troops and more troops quickly to move to the front, and seemingly belief is that the word “will go.”