Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-06-03
ENLISTMENT Of REGULARS
No Difficulty in Finding Good Men in New
York.
An officer Explains the Advantages
offered by This branch of
the Service.
Special Correspondence of TIE Evening Star.

NEW YORK, June 2, 1895
The assertion has been made of late that
the regular army is unpopular, and that
great difficulty is being met with in recruit
ing this important part of the military ser
vice up to the 62,UoO now permitted by law.
According to the report, the desired num-
Der is now short by fully 20,000, and that
1t has even been said that it was likely
that recruiting would stop at the present
figure, and that the volunteers would be
relied upon to carry on the work cut out
for our troops. Several causes were given
for this supposed unpopularity of this
branch of our military force. One con-
cerned the matter of pay, which, so far
as enlisted men in the regular service are
concerned, is but $13 a month, as against
$50 and fraction for the analogous grade
IN the volunteer army. Another reason
put forward was that promotion in the
regular branch. where the aspirant was
brought into competition with the many
trained men from the government military
academy, must necessarily be more diff
cult than in the hastily gotten together
volunteer regiments, with their heterogen-
eOuS makeup and comparatively accom-
modating standard.
AT the recruiting station at 9th street
and sd avenue there is certainly no dis
position on the part of would-be recruits
to discriminate against the regular army.
They are swearing in men there as fast as
the rather cunlbel some though necessary,
prelimnaries to the formality will permit.
The idea that there should be any feeling
against the regular army is apparently un-
thinkable to the enlisted men already in
the service. Captain Chapman, who is in
charge Of the recruiting work in this vicin-
ity for the regular army, says: Il can see
that many might prefer the volunteer SER
Wee because they might think that pro-
motion would lie more rapid
caste? Yes, that is necessary An Of
ficer can't take an enlisted man to dinner,
but there is place where men
well taken care of, where they are treated
with more consideration, than in the regu-
lar army. A man is looked after like a
child For example, he is taught to keep
himself clean, to care for his feet. A Bills
ter on the heel for half an hour is worse
than twenty-four-mi march. l know
from experience. man is told these
things, and if he doesn't heed them there
is non-commssioned officer to watch him
and see that he does. But it is mistake
that we are not getting all the recruits we
can handle. Sometimes we do not get
through here until = o'clock in the morn
ing. The enlistments this month will be
very much heavier than they were last
month. l am not absolutely certain of the
figures, for L have rot made out my
port yet, but we have enlisted about Loco
men here during the last month.
Take the Aston Battery, for example.
That is going into the regular army, yet
we had more applicants than We could
handle. There are to be but ninety-eight
men in the battery, and when we got nine
ty We had to quit in order to leave room
for some mechanics. We had lawyers, doc
tors, educated men. generally, but you
have got to have some blacksmithS and
ma chinists. We examined 40 applicants,
and nearly all of those who were not
acceptcd-Lieut. Keller picked the men
said they would come back and enter some
other branch of the service"