Daily inter mountain., 1900-08-27
EAGER TO FIGHT.
GREAT RUSH TO ENLIST IN ARMY
AND NAVY.
ONLY THE BEST MEN WANTED.
Two New Battleships to Go Into Ser
vice-Volunteers Will Come
Home Soon.

New York, August 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 OFFS
the country have nocKed to the recruit
ing stations anxious to receive military
service in foreign Country. The re-
cruiting officers are taking their pick Of
applicants, and are having no difficulty
in keeping the regular army about up
to it's full limit under the law.
Col. Thomas Ward, the assistant adju-
tant general in charge of the enlisted
mems division. said that enlistments in
the army have never been so numerous
as at present. There is something re-
markable, 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
officers lists show enlistments for April
We're 1874; May, 144S; June, 1647; July,
200 and for the first ten days of Aug
ust, by reports so far received by the
war department S97 This furnishes an
aggregate of 7946 men for that period
Usually the same months of any other
year have furnished hardly one-half O.
that number.
| Col Ward said: "Of the 27OO enlist
ments for July about 1900 We're for for
eign service, which number, $50, were en-
listed directly for regiments designated
| for such service. while upward of thou
sand were sent to rendezvous for assign
ment to such regiments, and those already
in the Orient. The othe enlistments were
! for depot battalions, the artillery, or for
general assignment, $50 of which were
made at military posts for organizations
serving thereat."
That the army is getting it's choice of
| the young men of the country is shown
| by the fact that during July no less
| hn WI hn iCf
ment were rejected
| The recruiting officers have been able
| to respond to the demands of the various
regiments for recruits and there are Ills
men waiting assignments to commands.
Recruiting at present is for the regu-
la army. BY the existing law the volun-
teer force must all be mustered out of
the service on or before July 1, 1901.
1t is the purpose Of the department to
begin returning the volunteers from
the Philippines early in December, and
they will be mustered out from time to
time as they reach this country. Re-
cruits for that service have been stop
ped some time since, and the volunteer
force has fallen from it's authorized
strength of $4,000 men to 31,O4li officers
and men. Every effort is being made
by the navy department to recruit the
| navy up to it's full enlisted strength.
To provide crews for the battleship Ala
bame and battleship Wisconsin, it will
be necessary to place the battleships In
diana and Massachusetts in reserve, and
just at this moment. when affairs in
! China are at such a critical stage, it
is considered desirable that there shohld
be in commission, all the armored men
of-war available The authorized
strength of the enlisted branch of the
service is 1880 men and 2500 boys. The
present number of men enlisted is 3,S9t
! and 1715.
Like the army the navy is particularly
careful in making enlistments. The
latest action taken to obtain recruits i:
the assignment of the tug Fortune tt
duty as recruiting ship. She; is nov
3. touching at ports on Long Island sound
and as soon as she has forty recruits
she returns to New York. transfers then
, to the receiving ship Vermont and re
turns to the next point on the itenerary
When she has completed her cruise OF
the sound the Hudson will go up tn
Hudson as far as Albany.