The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-18
NEED FOR MORE MEN
LIEUTENANT BASS TALKS OF RE.
 CRUITING WORK.
Congress Has Greatly Enlarged the Navy, and Great Care Is Used In Selecting High Grade
 Mrn.

Ten applications have been received by the naval recruiting party which Is now in the city and will remain un- til Saturday evening. but only four of these have passed the required exami- nations. Three have been enlisted and are now drawing pay from Uncle Sam. Those who have been added to the | pay rolls are w. Pickard and c. c. S. Gies, of Montgomery, and C. C. San ford of Dadeville.
 These men will leave the latter part of the week for Norfolk. Va, where | they will enter the Training School With the other recruits from this sec. l ton they will spend the summer at the | training station and on board the | cruisers and battleships which will participate in the naval manuvers at | the Jamestown Exposition.
 Lieutenant Bass. of the recruiting | party said yesterday that the navy needed men.
 Tt Is easy to explain the reason why" said he. Congress has increas- ed our navy In the last few years to such an extent that now we have the third largest fleet in the world, only
 England and France having more war | ship tonnage, and we have five more | battleships in commission than France l has. In order to have efficient ships
 they must be kept in commission on a
 war footing. and that requires men. We could very easily recruit our
 navy up to its full strength in a few
 months if we were to take down the
 bars and allow foreigners to enlist in
 the service. but we want a navy that
 we can count upon in time of war and
 to that end are not going to enlist | anyone for the naval service who Is not an American.
 If the standards for enlistments | were lowered. we could get more men in a few months than we need, but we
 will not take men who are not of good
 habits and character and sound physi-
 cally. At present we are not taking
 a third of those who apply for enlist
 ment.
 There seems to be an idea among the people of great many Southern cities I have visited. that men are i'll | treated In the navy and that the navy | department is having a hard time get | ting men to man our men-of war;" continued Lieutenant Bass. "A great many people look on the navy as A re- form school for boys of bad habits and rowing dispositions. a place for felons. and not a fit place for men of good character. Such is not the case in the navy of the present day by any means. There are as fine men in the navy as there in any other walk in life. No one of bad habits will be enlisted. nor need a man who has been convicted Of a crime apply for enlistment. for he will surely he turned down.
 "A great many people think we are going about the country misrepresent- ing the naval service to young men in order to induce them to join the navy. We are not here to Shanghai men, nor to misrepresent the conditions in the service
 AS for tho life being a hard one. the mere fact that over fifty per cent of men whose enlistments are expiring now are re-enlisting for another term would seem enough to refute the idca. Of course there are men in the navy who are discontented, and in what walk of life do you not find the same thing We are not inducing young men to enlist fin the navy under any raise statements or misrepresentations. That would be the worst thing we could do for the service. as 1t is the man who remains in the service TOT several years who increases the efficiency or the service. .
 such men there can be no douot. Iake' for instance, a young man of seventeen who enlists in the navy and continues to re-enlist as each term expires. IT he never gets higher than chief petty officer he can retire at forty-seven years of age on monthly pension Of over sso for the remainder of his life. If he saves half of his salary and puts 1t in the bank. on retiring he woulu hove over S2O,oo0 saved. How many noan tn civil life can do and are doing. ne much? How many who work for salary can, upon reaching old age, re- tire tire from toll on good salary? In the navy this opportunity fs not open to a fortunate few. but to every man wh enlists and applies himself"