Omaha daily bee., 1911-12-10
By 9cW M -AcZToW

ttNtS' Inc lllst training Is BOllel III tue
recruit schools where the men are re-
CURED 10 serve s!xty-fiyc days FOR the
infantry and The foot artillery. seventy.
five days for the field artillery and ninety
Guys FOR the. cavalry. After that they
serve eleven days annually. Physical eXer4
clscs and military training are given also
to the schoOlboys In the public schools,
and as a result the Swiss might have
a compaI dtively large army strength in
tmu of war. The SW.ss army Is a national
militia. and a militia so trained would
be very valuable to us.
But that. of course. is impossible We
do not want compulsory military educa-
ton in this country, but we might largely
Increase our force of trained men i'm pr!-
vate life by making the regular army "A
training school into which men might go
for period of two or three years and
then return 20 private life 20 give place
to Others"
100000 Citizen Soldiers.
That is the proposed scheme for the
national reserve, is IL not?"
Yes. that Is one OF the proposed plans
The idea is to make the army a great
military training school apd to pass
through # as many men as possible IN
order TO form from them a reserve upon
which we could call In time OF war. They
would not be called out to subdue riots
or strikes, but would be only used for the
defense of the nation. As it is now about
So,OOO men annually leave the army or the
militia for civll life. II we could
keep our hold upon these men and
bring them together for a few DAYS of
training and maneuver each year we
would in time build up a large reserve
fighting force One idea was to cut down
the term of enlistment TO two years in
stead OF three and to have the service
expire at that time. This would bring
a set OF new young men numbering from
80 600 10 10000 into military training every
year. and 1t would add that many each
year TO our reserve fighting force. lin
six years at 10000 we might have 800, 600
men in the national reserve and with the
army and militia be then able TO COM
mand in time of war 100000 well-trained
! soldiers. The national reserve would
have short periods of military training
each year or every other year, and they
would be expected to continue their
| training for six years thereafter. The
! total time consumed in this way during
the six years would be about six months
or an average of one month per year
One idea would be to pay them sometime
! like So per month throughout the year
and for this they would keep us in.
formed Of their addresses and thcil
movements
This plan would keep our army COM
posed of young men and the national
reserve would be greatly increased as
! time goes on. a young man going into
the regular service at 20 and leaving Il
at % would be i'm the national reserve
proper until he was 2s, but IL the nation
demanded 1t he might make one of the
units Of an efficient fighting force for
almost twenty years thereafter or until
he was A or IS years old. In the Swiss
reserve the liability OF service extends
from the seventeenth TO the end Of the
forty-cighth year, and the actual service
begins at the age OF 20"
Millions for Arms and Ammunition
But it would take millions of money
to supply the arms and ammuntlons foi
such a force?'
'Ct course" replied tine general, but
the army Is a rlac. where one cannot
economic rs to its supplies. The onh
way TO stop the waste is To stop the
fighting, and often the great expenditure
OF arms, ammunition and men in BATH,
rs real economy In time of war yot
cannot count the cost. The only wa
to ccunoDlizc f. 10y stopping the fghtmg
and t.at through victory. A. il H. now
We aie adding 90 cur aims and ammunl
tion ag r52.O'y as possible, and We shat
soon hava .Jmetnlng Ike I0UlCO rifle,
ana i.iG-,C0J rounds ut ammunition 81
our atorehJusos. What we need NOR,
than anything else just now is gun.
and ammunition for the field artlller,
The artillery guns are very complicated
anh they take time to make You car
not have them within a few days upol
Older. We need about 1909 OF them an,
they VIII cost altogether something Tx,
S2o,DO,0O0. The men who operate suci
guns require special training, and ",
should have them just az soon as posi-
bic. As 20 ammunition. we should havi
1850 rounds Tor each gun. This is onI,
one-half the amount that the Europesr
armies carry"
Ready For War.
During my talk with Secretary sumsoI