The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-08-27
BOOM IN ENLIsTMENTs
Since the Beginning of the Trouble in
China.

New York. Aug. establishments in
the army have been phenomenal since
the beginning of the trouble in China
says the Washington correspondent of
the country have nocked to the recruit
ing stations anxious to see active mill
tary service in a foreign land. The re-
cruiting officers are taking their pick of
the applicants and are having no diff
Guilty in keeping the regular army
about up to its full limit under the law.
Colonel Thoms Ward, the assistant
ad1utant general IN charge of the en-
listed mems division, said that enlist
ments in the army have never been so
numerous as at present This is the
more remarkable since the recruiting in
the harvesting period is always less
than at any other time of the year.
Then the young men out of work find
all they want to do on farms in the
west
The official records show that the
enlistments for April were LIZA, May
1,44S, June 1,647, July 2,700 and for the
first ten days of August, covered by re-
ports so far received by the war de-
Dartment Sg7 This furnishes an aggre-
gate of 1886 men for that period.
Usually the same months of any other
year have. furnished hardly one-ha1f
that number.
listments for July, about 1900 were for
foreign service, of which number about
$50 were enlisted directly for regiments
wards of thousand were sent to rem
devious for assignment to such regf-
ments and those already in the Orient.
The other enlistmentS were for depot
battalions, the artillery. or for general
assignment; $50 of which were made at
military posts for organizations serv-
ing thereat.''
That the army is getting it's choice of
the young men of the country is shown
by the fact that during July alone no
less than 9035 men who applied for en-
hstment We're rejected.
The recruiting officers have been able
GUS regiments for recruits. and there
are s1.315 men now awaiting assign
ments to commands.
Recruiting at present is all for the
regular army. Under the existing law
the volunteer force must all be mus
tered out of the service on or before
July 1, 1901 1t is the purpose Of the
war department to begin returning the
December, and the various regiments
will be mustered out from time to time
as they reach this country.
Recruiting for that service was stop-
ped some time since, and the volunteer
force has fallen from its authorized
strength of $1,000 men to 31.741 officers
and men. Every effort is being made
by the navy department to recruit the
navy up to its full enlisted strength. To
provide crews for the battleshipS Ala
bama and Wisconsin it will be neces-
sary to place the hattleships Indiana
and Massachusetts, in reserve, and Just
at this moment when affairs in China
are at such a critical stage it is con-
sidered desirable that there should be
in commission all the armored men of
war available. The authorized strength
of the enlisted branch of the service is
II 500 men and $500 boys. The present
number of men enlisted is 1886 and
LIS boys.
Like the army, the navy is particu-
larlV careful in making HrliStTneutS
The latest action taken to obtain re
cruits is the assignment of the tug For
tune to duty as a recruiting ship. She
forty recruits she returns to New
York, transfers them to the receiving
ship Vermont and returns to the next
point on her itinerary. When she has
completed her tour of ports on the
Sound the Fortune will go up the Hud-
son as far as Albany.