The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1888-06-23
UNCLE SANS ARMY.
Some Light Thrown on q Comparativ
Unknown attbtect. ~ ~

a.. q
Some Light Thrown on a Comparatively
Unknown Subject. W.
| II there Is any one thing that the av.
ewge American knows next to nothing
about 1t Is the. standing army OF this
great and glorious Republic of ours.
The other day a recruiting officer sta.
toned in Baltimore was here, and had
the pleasure Of long conversation
with him, and in talking of army mat.
ters naturally drifted into the character
Of the men who enlist, and the causes
that have led to 80 many deserters
from the army In the past few years.
Speaking of the nationalities OF the
men who enlist, my friend said: a
II find that, as a rule, the foreign
born. recruits are better educated men
than the natives. It often happens that
German or Austrian, who applies to
me for enlistment, came to this country
In the hope of much better employment
than the military service affords. He
finds when he arrives that the situation
has been painted in hues rather more
rosy than the circumstances warrant.
He Is stranger iii q strange land. He
is, perhaps, unfamiliar with the lam
guage, and knows nothing of the GUS
toms of the country, and, after spend
ing all the money he may have brought
with him, he finds only the United
States army open to him.
"The pay here is better than in Eu-
repe and the service very much shorter;
and, although he may have left his ma
tive country to avoid military service,
he seizes upon it here. as means of
support. Only this week I enrolled
one man who was familiar with several
languages and who had served with
credit as an officer in the army of
Austria"
''Do these men usually re-enlist when
their first term expiresp"
''No, not often. At the end of the
five years they have generally acquired
thorough knowledge of the English
language, and saved some little money,
and are, able to return to their birth
places or to find some other employ
ment. 1t is not often that an educated
foreigner re-enliyts after his first term
of enlistment has expired" Vrgu0
''Do the desertions come froih this
class of foreign recruitsp" ,i, ut.,,.
,"No. On the contrary, they usual
ly are faithful soldiers and retire with
an honorable discharge" /" r"
'sFrom what class do the desertions
come principallyp" lai'Ae- l1 uolsf .
. Usually they come from a class Of
professional deserters, men who enlist
for the purpose of getting out oftrouble
originally and tire of the military
service. When opportunity presents
itself they desert, and after remaining
out a few months again enlist much to
to the detriment of the service. ",Y
"Have you any method for marking
deserter now?"
"No, not at the present time. Brand
ing was once resorted to, but this
has been abandoned by order of the
War Department.. It was Intellectual,
because the brand would not be dis
covered unless the soldier attempted
to re-enter the service, when an exami-
nation would at once disclose the
mark" 'N" 'p1 'H'i '''''
[ "What, in your opinion, would prove
the most etfectual method for prevent
ing desertiOnp"
"In a report of the Secretary of War
for the present year, one of our Gener-
ais recommends that every man who en-
ters the United States Service would
be tatooed at some place on his arm
u. s. In order that there may bo no
stigma about this it is suggested that
the tattooing be extended to the officers
as well as to the men. If this was done
I think it would have good effect,
although there is good deal Of oppo-
sition to the proposal in the army.
Some officers assert that they would
never submit to the so-called degrada-
tion, and they insist that they would
retire from the service before permit
ting the tattooers to do their work.
But in my opinion, there are very few
efficers who who would throw up their
commissions for u thing of this kind,
especially when it would be so general
as to prevent the cry Of degradation.
It would certainly mark every man
who applies for enlistment SO we'll
that we could tell in moment whether
he ever served in the army before,
and would absolutely prevent the re-
enlistment of the men who once desert.
If the army could be relieved from the
chronic deserters the number Of deser-
tions would materially diminish, and
there would be fewer reports ON this
subject to the War Department each
year. .n-10ledo Blade. sis nii, sf
t' Durable and Ornamental. ai@
m q You, i,,va,, u, ~, ,,,h;o,, ,,,,i