Bluefield evening leader. [volume] (Bluefield, W. Va.) 1906-1911, 1910-01-14
OLD WORLD ARMIES
Drafting Methods by Which Their
Strength Is Maintained.
TRICKS OF THE CoNScRIPTs.
All Manner Of Dodges Are Adopted by
the Eligible Young Men to Avoid the
Enforced Military Service That Is So
Hateful 10 Them.

n
Enforced Military Service That Is So
Hateful 10 Them.
We hear n good deal about conscrip.
tim. but few people know what IL ac-
'uolly means. In no country is every
person who IS able 10 fight drafted
into the army. All males who are liza
Ole 10 serve undergo a physician exam
nation. resulting in only q certain
TUmber being passed as it for service
10 government has sufficient funds
10 draft the whole OF these men into
the regular army. so selection is
made by ballot, the number of men en-
rolled varying according 10 the funds
In the hands of the authorities.
The pay provided for the conscript
is necessarily very trifing indeed and
Will not compare with that paid to vol
untccr soldiers. In fact. It is generally
true that the conscript must fail back
upon his private means. -.
The methods vary in each country
l;ut take the case of one European
power. Every male subject not phys
irally incapacitated is liable to enter
the army at the age OF twenty, al.
though those who care TO enlist may
do so mt eighteen.
\ register is kept OF all the youths
who reach the sage OF twenty i'm the
particular year. Men under five feet
two inches in height are exempt from
service, us well. Of course, as those
vino suffer from natural infrmties
which render them unsuitable for ac-
tive service.
Other men are also exempt If they
have helpless dependents - thus the
only son of Il widow or OF Il disabled
father. the latter category also includ-
ing the only son of a father who is
above seventy years OF age. Then the
eldest OF a family OF orphans is ex.
empt, and i'm the case of two sons only
ono is liable, there being various other
exemptions.
Tie term served by the conscriDt is
one of twenty-five years. three years
being spent in the regular army, six
and one-half in the army reserve. six
i'm the territorial army and the re
naming nine and a half years i'm the
territorial reserve. all liability 10 serv-
ice ceasing ut forty-dve
The service is frequently so hated
that all manner of methods are adopt
ed i'm order to avoid IT. In many
cases substitutes are provided by the
wealthy, though there are stringent
regulations with regard to the pro.
vision of the substitutes.
In most European countries military
malingering i'm order to avoid compul-
sorry military service has reached the
stage of fine art In fact, formida-
lzble list Of new crimes has been added
10 the statutes as result. and medical
men frequently have TO suffer for their
assistance in this particular. kind OF
fraud
Thus some time ago a number of
Cologne doctors were arrested upon n
belmrge of having administered pills to
young conscriptS. These pills consist
cd of drugs which produced the symp-
1omsSof heart disease so effectively as
/ completely TO deceive the military au-
thorties, with the result that the con
/ scripts were declared unfit for service.
Ia this case the fraud was brought to
Flight by one of the conscripts dying as
Ea result of an overdose OF the medi-
cine.
ln Germany, where the conscript is
/ frequently treated with the greatest
harshuess. there are very few towns
where there are not specialists whose
giving depends solely in inducing such
n condition OF affairs as will render
young men exempt by reason Of unit
ness
l..