The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-12-12

| He knows what railroad station Re
is to go to. what train to take and
| for what point. The plans are such
| that. although Switzerland has but a
small standing army, it could call a
force of two or three hundred thou
sand together within a few Gays.
| Service in the national force is COM
puisory and universal, those u
or rejected paying extraordinary
taxes. The first training is gotten IN
the recruit schools. where the men
are REQUIRED to serve sixty-fve days
for the infantry and the foot artillery,
seventy-five days for the field artillery
and ninety days for the cavalry. Al
ter that they serve eleven days an
nual1y. Physical exercises n mill
tary training are given also to the
~schoolboys in the public schools, and
as a result the Swiss might have
a comparatively large army strength
in time of war. The Swiss 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
education in this country, but We
might largely increase Our force OF
trained men in private life by max
ing the regular army & training school
into which men might go for a period
Of two or three years, n then re-
turn to private life to give place to
others"
800, 600 Citizen Soldiers.
"That is the proposed scheme for
the national reserve, is it nOt?'
Yes, that is n Of the proposed
plans. The idea is to make the army
a great military training school and
to pas through it 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 bou
thirty thousand men annually leave
the army OF the militia for civil life.
If we could keep our hold upon these
men and bring them together for d
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 instead Of
three n to have the service expire
at that time. This would bring a
set Of new young men numbering from
thirty to fifty thousand into military
training every year, and it woul add
that many each year to our reserve
fighting force. In six years at fifty
thousand we might have three hun
dred thousand men in the national re-
serve n with the army and militia
be then able to command in time of
war a half million well-trained sol
diers. The national reserve would
have short periods of military training
each year OF 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
mont per year. One idea would be
to pay them something like 81 per
non throughout the year. and for
this they would keep us Informed OF
their addresses and their movements.
This plan would keep u army
composed Of young men and the ma
tional reserve would be greatly in
creased as time goes on. A young
man going into the regular service at
twenty and leaving it at twenty-five
would be in the national reserve
proper until he was twenty-eight, but
if the nation demanded it he might
make one of the units Of an efficient
fighting force for almost twenty years
thereafter, or until he was forty-four
or forty-eight years old. In the Swiss
reserve the liability Of service extends
from the seventeenth to the end of
the forty-eighth year, and the actual
service begins at the g Of twenty
Millions Needed for Arms and Am
munitiOn.
"But it would take millions Of
money to supply the arms and am
nlunitiOn for such a force %
Q course" replied the general,
but the army is a place where one
cannot economic as to it's supplies.
The only way to stop the waste is to
stop the fighting, and often the great
RXnan6lflIrn of arms ~ rpif;o~ orl
men in a battle is real economy In
time OF war you cannot count the
cost. The only way to economic is
by stopping the fighting. and that
through victory. AS it is now, we
are adding to our arms and m
ton as rapidly as possible. and we
shall soon have something like a mil
lion rifles and one hundred and aft.