Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 February 1920 — ARMY TOO BUSY SAVING ITSELF, BULLARD SAYS [ARTICLE]

ARMY TOO BUSY SAVING ITSELF, BULLARD SAYS

New York, Feb. 28.—The American army was too busy “saving itself to be 'bothered by anything else,” Lieut. Gen. Robert Lee Bullard, commander of the department of the east, declared tonight in an address befdre the Society of the Sons Of Revolution in replying to the critics who have charged wastefulness by the army while abroad. Rear Admiral Ralph Earle, chief of the bureau of ordnance department of the navy, Meo spoke, the occasion being the annual dinner of the society. Commenting on the investigation as to why the American forces had not ceased fighting oh the armistice hour, Gen. Bullard declared that he had been given “hail Cdhimbik” by the congressional committee in Washington, and that he was at the front at the time and did not observe any of the Germans stopping at <the hour. In concluding he paid a tribute to the American Legion, declaring that it was causing a wave of patriotism over the land and added that patriotism is further incaTculated in universal military training. Rear Admiral Earie reviewed the activities of the United States navy in the war. The American mine laying squadron, he said, laid 56,000 mines -in the North Sea barrage, which was suggested by President Wilson, to 13,000 laid by the-Brit-ish. The navy, at the opening of the war, according to the naval officer, increased its armament from 376 guns to 4,360 and of this number 1,742 were used .-in manning merchant ships. Three hundred and forty-five of these guns were loaned to the allied nations, he said.