Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 103, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1916 — U.S.ARMY FOR FUNSTON [ARTICLE]

U.S.ARMY FOR FUNSTON

GENERAL CAN USE ENTIRE FORCE IN MEXICO. Has Authority to Call Out Additional Units Without Asking Permission From War Department. Washington, March 24.—A1l of the regular army forces in the United States have been placed at the ! disposal of Gen. Fred Funston, commanding on the Mexican border. He can call for individual units without asking the war department for special orders. But under no circumstances will the regulars now stationed in the Panama canal zone or in Honolulu, be included in any such arrangement. Funston also can have 13,000 coast artillerymen organized as infantry, when he wants them. Their organization is complete. The first to go will be from the department of the East. But until they actually are on the way no announcement of plans will be made by the war department. Army officers severely criticized the resolution introduced in the senate by Senator Sherman of Illinois, authorizing the president to call for 50,000 volunteers. This resolution has no support among the men who will direct the fighting. The plans of the general staff call for a volunteer army of 600,000 men with the National Guard given first call should real intervention be made necessary and the c“fleers who are most familiar with the general situation south of the Rio Grande say that any authorization of only 50,000 volunteers under existing circumstances will only serve to inflame the entire Mexican nation. The general staff has complete equijiment for 500,000 men ready at the various supply stations and arsenals. If any action is to be taken the staff will request Secretary of War Baker to see that the volunteer call is made effective for half a million men, no matter how many actually are drafted into the service.