Evening star., 1901-02-02
Bringing Home the Volunteers From
the Philippines.
SCATTERED ALL OVER THE ISLANDS
How Others viii Be Sent Out
to Take Their Place.
TRANSPORTS IN ID NJ \ y ID

Written for The Evening Star by Oscar X. Davis.
1t was provided by the law authorizing
the organization of the volunteer army now
serving in the Philippines that the men
should be mustered out in the United States
on or before the Both of June of this year.
The faithful observation of this provision
of law is about to entail upon the quarter
masters department of the army a task
of tremendous proportions For it is the
purpose of the government to replace the
returning volunteers with other men and
the quartcrma sters must not only gather
up the scattered regiments in the Philip
pines and bring them home, but they must
also send out the new organizations and
scatter them about the islands in the posts
now occupied by our garrisons. 1t is task
similar to that of the summer and fall of
1899, when the men who enlisted for the
war with Spain came home, but of much
larger proportions.
Roughly speaking, there were $4,000 men
in the twenty-five regiments of volunteers
raised under the law of 1899. Many of
these have been invalded home in the year
and a half of their service, some We're sent
back for other causes, some were discharg-
ed and some have been killed. The number
of these, however, is more than made up
by the men who enlisted in the regular
army for similar service, and who, under
INC SsiiHS law, are " pC uiSNhii w
this summer.
Transports in Demand.
There are very few ships in the govern
ment transport service capable of carrying
a thousand men or more comfortably for
so long a trip as that across the Pacific
ocean None of the ships now available
for charter as transports can accommodate
a thousand men. The voyage from Manila
to one of the ports on our Pacific coast
requires nearly a month. Allowing each
ship Il month to get out to Manila, there
Is two months work for thirty-iive ships,
or seventy months-nearly six yearS-for
one ship. in repatriating the volunteers.
| These six years work must be done in six
mon tbs, neceSSitating at least dozen ships.
There are about that many large trans
ports in the regular government service,
and if the work could be taken in hand
now and continued regularly it probably
could be all accomplished In the required
| time, especially as some of the ships, like
the Logan and the Hancock, are fitted Tor
carrying 50 many more than a thousand
men.
But the old men cannot be brought away
from the Philippines until the new ones are
ready to replace them and so the whole
work of transporting 10000 or more men
across the Pacific will have TO be done IN
the shortest possible time necessitating .-ie
charter Of many transports and much extra
work we'll as expense. After the return
ing reach the states the work of dis
muster out will be comparatively simple
and easy. 1t Is in concentrating the regi-
ments in Manila, preparatory to shipping
them home and in sending the new men
out to their garrisons in the islands that
the hardest work will come in, and it is
there that delays will be most frequent and
VeXatiOuS.
Widely Scattered.
ile only regiments in the Philippines
thai are serving with organization intact
In 10 rr1arl oP Manila
Usually two regiments are kept in this SER
vice, and there have been few changes be-
cause it proved Unwise to shift men who
had learned the city and the bothersome
duties of military police work and substi-
tute men who would have to learn the
same things Outside OF Manila Gen. Mac
Arthur has occupied more than 440 posts.
They extend from the northernmost point
of Luzon to Tawi TaWi, the Southernmost
island of the archipelago. All of the larger
islands except the unhealthy and densely
wooded Mindoro have been garrisoned, and
many of the smaller ones
As a general thing the troops have
reached their posts either by water or per
boot" as the soldiers say. The one rail
road in the island runs north from Manila
about a hundred and twenty-five miles and
greatly simpities the problem of the occu-
patton and supply of the provinces it ira
verses. But the regiments doing duty along
it are so scattered that even with its help
considerable time is required to concentrate
when the 9th Infantry ordered to Chi
ma in June of last year.
Gathering Up the Troops.
The government has no small ships suit
able for the inter-island transport service,
and 1t has relied almost entirely on the
small trading steamers owned in Manila.
The largest of these can accommodate
battalion of men only after much crowd
ing and with great discomfort to the men.
These same ships will be called into serv
ice to gather up the men now scattered
about the islands. Take the north coast of
Mindanao for an example. We occupy six
or eight ports the largest force in any of
them being a battalion. When the men left
Manila at the time of the first occupation
of these Places they took part of their
| baggage with them and left part of it to be
stored in Manila. In their new posts they
| have accumulated a lot more. All this has
to be picked up with them and taken to
| Manila There is company baggage and
| battalion baggage and regimental baggage,