Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 185, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1918 — Great Lakes Training Station Is Doing Tremendous Amount of Work [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Great Lakes Training Station Is Doing Tremendous Amount of Work

By WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT.

Fomer Ptaident of d» United States

; ' It is interesting to compare .what the navy has done in its one great cantonment at the Great Lakes Naval Training station, north of Chicago, with the many cantonments built and used by the army. The navy had 25,000 men to drill and train and this cantonment was therefore about the same size or a little smaller than the average army cantonment It is a great permanent station, with accommodations for 30,000-to 35,000 jackies in trainfag. The buildings are somewhat more stoutly built. They are painted and constructed- on somewhat different archi-

tectural lines, both of which make them a little more attractive to the eye. ' They have also what the army has not, two large drill halls. They gave me a review of 7,000 jackies in one drill hall, and it was evident that these halls had been of great advantage for needed training in large bodies. Another difference was the difference in the age of the men. The Tnpn were really between eighteen and twenty-two, and in their naval uniform they looked like cadets of a high or preparatory school. They were under excellent discipline, as one could see. They needed no instruction as to saluting. They were not as well able as the older men to withstand the test of my long, addresses, and I thought I discovered a little more somnolence among them than I did among the drafted army. The army law should be amended so as to authorize the president to increase the apny from 1,500,000 to 5,000,000 men with the colors, or more. We must win the war, and we should now lay our foundations abroad so as to make that inevitable. Of course airplanes, Artillery and other instruments of war are necessary in a ihodern campaign, and we should increase the supply as far as our resources will permit, but in the end this war, as other wars, must be won by trained man power. We should look forward with large vision and make ample provision so as to strengthen our allies, give confidence to our own army and convince our enemies now of our determination to win the victory.