Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1914-12-17
1000 BOYS IN TENTS IN 1915
Students Record on Ranges
Last Year Was Better Than
That of Fifth Infantry Regu-
lars from Plattsburgh-Fitted
129 for Volunteer Officers.

dependable volunteer army through coll
iege camps. federal control of the
militia, Increase in the regular army,
and provision for adequate armament are
the essentials for meeting the sudden
attacks of any hostile power upon the
United States the members of the Mer-
chants association of New York were
told to-day by Mai Gen. Leonard Wood
and Il enry l.. Stimson. formerly secretary
Henry l.. Stimson. formerly secretary
of war 1t Is not a large army, but a
fully efficient army that is needed Cen
eral Wood stated and in filing this need
the college camps must play an i'm
portant part in training volunteer Of
ticers, for 1t is upon tho volunteer army
that the country must ultimately depend.
The plan of the general staff to bring
tho army forces IN to $1,000 is only a
stop-gap, he continued, while III. full
citizen army is being organized
BOYS RECORD BETTER THAN REG
ULARS'.
You might as well. under modern war
conditions. try to organize a big reserve
without previous preparation as to try
to organize n life-saving service on ship
wrecked vessel that is going to pieces,
up to 100000 We shall have to have l2,0l0
additional officers. For this purpose wo
must have college camps such as existed
last year at Gettysburg and Monterey.
This wear we shall probably have 2.ooO
boys in four OF these camps. The boys
made a better record last year-and this
shows what YOU can do with intelligent
men in short time-than was made by
he of ho In
fantry for the same ranges. At the end OF
the five weeks training period a board Of
our own officers examined these young
STEERS and recommended 100 Of them as fit
for volunteer officers in the lower grades.
FOR SIX MONTHS ENLISTMENT.
Now this is the kind of system which
think can he applied in this country.
hope that eventually 1t will grow into a
general movement embodying say six
months enlistment, broken into periods
of two months each, to be taken during
the economic and educa tiOnal vacation,
so as to interfere as little as possible with
the work of the young men who are TN
business and the educational work of the
boys who are in college. | think, if we
can do that, there will be developed a
large number of trained youngsters as Of
fcers of volunteers and a still larger
number as trained men to form the
nucleus Of volunteer companies in case
we are 50 unfortunate as to become IN
VOWED in war. Some such method as
that must be adopted, because when the
war comes it will come suddenly and UNI
less we are the aggressor-which is highly
mprobable-it will come from one who
Is wholly prepared and who knows when
he is coming and where he is coming
WHERE OFFICERS ARE FOUND.
The principal sources for officers
aside from the new college camps. the
general said, were three-a few hun
dred qualified comm ssioned Of
ficers n very few men who have quail
fled through examinations held by the
war department and the graduates of
the o-called military schools--some OF
them good. some of them very poor"
The militia and the reserve. in Gen
eral Woods opinion, should ne con-
trolled by the federal government
rather than by the States, Tho States
VIII probably say that the militia at
peace strength is strong enough for
peace" he said. "Tf YOU were to have
war, that would be something for the
federal government to provide for-to
take care of the great volunteer army
on which we must ultimately depend.
Business men must make the militia,
he continued. land not as in the past,
be prejudiced against those who devote
two or three weeks year to militia
work"
The regular army is far from anxious
for war. said the speaker Men deal
pxnlOciNpS Ia NJ O
like to be blown up by experimental
bombs" he added, "and soldiers. who
are the first ones to go to war, arc
about the most conservative men with
reference to starting war, ! often think
that If We had in this country what they
have in other countries-a compulsory
training of all men-there would be much
less idle talk of war If all the men Of
a certain age knew that they were the
men to go first they would be about as
conservative an element as you would
find in the population
Former Secretary Stimson urged the
training of citizens in the use of arms,
the provision of adequate equipment for
the army and more efficient expenditure
| Of the money now being spent on the
army any navy.
Mayor Mitchell, in brief address, as
serted that rs n means to the efficient
operation of the navy in time OF war. as
well az from n commercial viewpoint, the
army boards project for the deenening
| OF the East river should be favorably
/ acted upon by the present Congress as the
dangerous reefs now existing virtually
| prevented the use of the river by the navy
as an outlet to Long Island sound