The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1900-08-28
ENL1sTMENTs NUMEROUS.
Young Men From All Parts of the
Country Anxious to Serve in
the Orient.

NEW YORK. Aug. Establishments in
the army have been phenomenal since
the beginning of the trouble in China,
says the Washington correspondent OF
the Herald. Young men in all parts OF
the country have flocked to the recruit
ing stations. anxious to receive milf
tary service in a foreign country. The
recruiting officers are taking their pick
Of the applicants and are having no
difficulty in keeping the regular army
up to its full limit under the .aw.
Colonel Thomas Ward. the assistant
adjutant-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 some
thing remarkable, since the recruiting
in the harvesting period is always less
than at any other time Of the year.
Then tie young find all they want to do
on farms in the west.
The officers lists show enlistments for
April we've 1874: May 144S; June lS4l;
July s700 and for the first 10 days OF
August. by reports 50 far received by
the war department. Ss7. This furnish
es an aggregate of 1864 men for that Pc
riod. Usually the same months of any
other year have furnished hardly one
half Of that number. Colonel Ward
said:
OF the 200 enlistments for July.
about $500 were for foreign service. Of
which number about 80 were enlisted
directly for regiments designated for
such service. while upward Of a thous-
and were sent to rendezvous for as
signment 10 such regiments and those
already in the Orient. The other en-
listments were for depot battalions the
artillery or for general ASSIGNMENT. 25O
Of which were made at military posts
for organizations serving thereat"
That the army is getting its choice of
the young men Of the country is shown
hy the fact that during July no less
than s.3O5 men who applied for enlist
ment were rejected.
The recruiting officers have been able
to respond to the demands Of the vari-
Gus regiments for recruits and there
are LIS men waiting assignments to
commands.
Recruiting at present is at the regu-
lar army. BY the existing law the vol
untAer force must all be mustered out
Of the service on or before July 1, 1901.
It is the purpose of the war denartment
% begin returning volunteers from the
Philippines early in December, and they
will he mustered out from time to time
as they reach this country. Recruits
for that service have been stopped for
some time since. and the volunteer
force has fallen from its authorized
strength Of $1,000 men to S1,141 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 bat
tleships Alabama and Wisconsin It will
be necessary to place the battleships
Indiana and Massachusetts in reserve.
and Just at this moment when affairs
in China are at such critical stage it
is considered desirable that there
should be in commission all the ar
mored men-of-war available. The au-
thorized strength of the enlisted branch
of the service Is 1880 men and $500
boys. The present number Of men en-
listed is 1896 and LIS boys.
Like the army the navy is particu-
larly careful in making enlistments.
The latest action taken to obtain re-
cruits is the assignment of the tug
Fortune to duty as a recruiting ship.
She is now touching at ports on Long
Island Sound and as soon as she has
forty recruits she returns to New York,
transfers them to receiving ship YER
mont and returns TO the next point
on her itinerary. When she has COM
pleted her tour Of ports on the Sound
the Fortune win 90 up the Hudson as
far as Albany.