The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-10-02
is MADE PERMANENT
Recruiting Station for the
Regular Army Service.
HIGH GRADE OF RECRUITS
And Many of Them, Supplied
by Southern Kansas.

Recruiting Officer Sergeant W. P Beltz
received a message yesterday from the
secretary of war authorizing the perma-
nent establishment OF a recruiting sta
ton in this city. The message also con-
tanned the appointment Of Sergeant Beltz
as the recruiting officer and DR.. J. II.
Fordyce as the examining physician. 1t
was further stated that Captain willis
Uline would arrive here today from Kan
sas City to make all the arrangements
necessary for the establishment of the
station. Captain Uline will have general
supervision Of the recruiting stations in
Topeka, Kansas City and Wichita, He
will visit the office here not oftener than
once in seven days and look after the
enlstments in a general way. But Ser
geant Beltz will have charge of the Wich-
tia station, as he has had for the past
three months.
Sergeant Beltz came here from Kansas
City on the 9Th of last July and took
charge of the station, which has been
only a temporary affair until now. He
has been in the regular army for four
teen years. During the war with Spain
he was with the Twentieth infantry, in
company A, and was engaged in the
battles Of FL Caney and Santiago. While
in the campaign there he was wounded.
After the war was over he returned to
the United States and was then COM
missioned to the recruiting station at
til,
here.
The appointment of Sergeant Beltz as
permanent enisting Office is in recogni-
ton of faithful service in the army and
as a recruiting officer since the war with
Spain.
The appointment of Dr. Fordyce as
the examining physician is due to the
satisfaction he has given as examining
surgeon in the occasional recruiting here
tofore done here.
During the last three months there
have been Alb applicants for enlistment.
This is counting every one who has come
in at the door and expressed the desire
to enter the army. Many of the appli-
cants never see the examining physician
The recruiting officer can often see at
glance that the applicant will not do
and summarily rejects him.
DR.. Fordyce has examined 233 of the
entire number of applicants and only
142 of these were accepted. The doctor
has been very careful in his examinations
and thus far not single man has been
discharged after reaching the Preside, at
San Francisco, the western rendezvous
for all recruits for the Philippines.
Every man who has been passed by DR..
Fordyce has been found well fitted FOR
service in the tropical climate
The work that this station has done
is far in advance of what his been done
at either Topeka or Kansas City. At
Kansas City they get about one man
out of ten, but here the average has
been one out of three. Also the men en-
listed from this section Of the country
are much better than the recruits from
larger cities. The average of the men
from here is about that Of any other
state.
This station will have all of southern
Kansas and Oklahoma to draw from and
at present there seems to be no difficulty
In getting men to enlist. There are about
ten applications every day. and every
week fifteen to twenty soldiers start over
the Santa Fe for the Pacific coast and
thence to the Philippines
So far only one man, Thomas I. Pitch
er, enlisted at this city, is known to
have been killed. Before enlisting Pitch
er made his home at Greenwich. Kan.
Recruiting will continue for the foreign
service as long as recruits are needed.
But even If men were no longer needed
in the Philippines the station would re-
main here and continue to enlist men
for the regular army. as one-third OF the
men are discharged every year.