Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1920 — Military Policy of the American Legion as Set Forth in Resolutions. [ARTICLE]

Military Policy of the American Legion as Set Forth in Resolutions.

FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION AT MINNEAPOLIS

That a large standing army is uneconomic and un-American. Na-, tional safety with freedom from militarism is best assured by a national citizen army based on the democratic and American principles of the quality of obligation and opportunity for all. We favor a policy of universal military training, and that the administration of such policy shall be removed from the complete control of any exclusively military organization or caste. We are strongly opposed to compulsory military service in time of peace. We have had a bitter experience in the cost of unpreparedness for national defense and the lack of proper training on the part of officers and men, and we realize the necessity of an immediate revision of our military system and a thorough housecleaning of the inefficient officers and methods of our entire military establishment. We favor a national military system based on universal military obligation, to include a relatively small regular army and a citizen army capable of rapid expansion sufficient to meet any national emergency, on a plan which wilf provide competitive and progressive training for all officers, both of the regular army and of the citizen forces. We believe that such military system should be subject to civil authority. Any legislation tending toward an enlarged and stronger „ military caste we unqualifiedly condemn. The national citizen army, which should and must be the chief reliance of this country in time of war should be officered by men from its own ranks and administered by a general staff on which citizen-soldier officers and regular army officers shall serve in equal number. We recommend that congress pass such legislation as will make the United States air service a separate and distinct department of our system of national defenses under control of a member of the president s cabinet appointed for that purpose alone. We favor the continuance of training camps for the training and education of officers to serve in case of national requirement. We recommend that military training in high schools and colleges be encouraged. The national citizen army should be organized into corps, divisions, and smaller units, composed in each case of officers and men who come from the same state or locality, and preserving local designations as far aa practicable. The national citizen army should be trained, equipped, officered, and assigned to definite units before, rather than after, the commencement of hostilities. . The selection and training of men for the national citizen army should be under the local control and administration of its own officers, subject to general national regulations.