Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1915-10-14
A PLEA FOR MACHINE GUN
IT MEANS PREPAREDNESS
Have the St. Johns COllegians
More Patriotism Than An
napolis BOYS?
ASKS CORRESPONDENT.
Importance Of the Machine Gun Or
ganization And What it Stands


recruit a machine gun platoon 10 be
attached to the First Pertinent. Mary-
land National Guard from among tho
Young men OF Annapolis. would it not
be well to analyze and look into this
movement thoroughly and find out the
Importance and value Of q machine gun
organization, with its trained gunners,
to the country, State anj city.
I'm organizing a body Of this kind -ou
always meet with a certain number or
persons who promise ito think about
it, and hesitate until ii is too late. as
we'll as with the opposition of a certain
percentage of radical Conservatives
who decry an innovation of any SORT.
and who see in the present campaign
for preparedness" a drifting towards
militarism of the worst sort. II is for
The disillusionment of these latter and
for the benefit Of any interest ! that
Il is article is intended.
Fhe machine gun. as every news
paper reader probably knows. has ;ine
and again proved its usefulness and eff
lciency durinr the present European
struggle. and we have only 70 read the
reports Of the United States Military
observers who appreciate the val
ue Of this particular arm of the serv-
ice, and the position Of importance it
occupies in the present trench war
fare. With this in mind, let us make
"A mathematical comparison of strength
OF this country in this respect with
few of the warring nations Germany
started the nresen; vai with $1,000
machine guns, France with nearly as
many. and England, Russia and Aus
ia-IIungary with approximately 25,-
600 apiece.
Contrast this with the United States
at TIC present time, which has. as far
as can be ascertained just $50 machine
guns. Does not tins speak for itself
Of the Importance of additional ma
chine guns and gunners? Continuing
| the comparison, let us take Germany
as an example Of an efficient, well-bal-
anced military establishment and COM
| pare ourselves with it, The German
| field army at war strength. together
with it's first line of reserves, tota' ed
| 1 Isl, 600 men, then the percentage of
the 10000 machine guns to the total en-
rollment was .0f per cent. or four guns
per huHared men.
| The United States. with a regular ar
my of $1,000 men. and an available
militia Of 125.000 men, totals 10000
| ren first war strength. the percent
age of the $50 machine guns to the total
enrolled being Just 000S per cent, or
8 guns per 10000 men, or guns per
5000 men. TO bring the United States
up to the standard of machine g,n pre-
paredness set by Germany would re-
| quire 10000 04 per cent or 1900 no
chine guns and figuring on a minimum
of five men per gdn. it would require
| $4,000 men to man and operate them
one-half as many as are now in the
regular army of the United Staes.
From this it can easily he seen that
every machine gun company organized
and every man that secures the train
ing is Of the greatest importance to the
country and any man that so secures
the training is performing a patriotic
act of the highest sort.
Now let US take the state of machine
CUR preparedness i'm the National
Guard OF all the militia organizations
in the United States only three states
have machine gun companies of any
kind, and these are the three greai
states of New York. Massachusetts ant
Pennsylvania Would il MT mean
something to have Maryland ranked as
one Of the four states that can boast 4
machine gun organization. and would
not the act of man enlisting in on,
reflect credit both on himself, the coun
try and the state2 Then. too, the or
ganization Of National Guard in Mary
land, as nearly everyone knows, is thu
First Brigade. which consists of threl
regiments, the Fourth and Fifth loca
ted in Baltimore, and the First in tn,
different small towns of the State L
which the machine gun platoon beinl
recruited locally will be attached Al
only one platoon Is attached to r4gi
ment Of militia, it is easily apparen
that ii the platoon is recruited here. /
will be the only one that csn be organ
tied in the State outside Of Baltimorl
CITY. and that initself is distinction Il
the city; to be the only CITY IN a Stat
which stands with the first four in tn
United States 10 have a machine gul
organization.
So it's up 10 the young men of th
town to get busy. The section Of tn
platoon allowed to st. Johns Colleg
has been filed to its maximum capac
ity. and ii remains for the young me-
Of Annapolis to fiji up the rarks of IN
town organization. Have the st. John
boys more patriotism or respect 70
their college than the Annapolis boy
for their city? So get busy. Don
wait for the other fellow He may b
waiting for YOU You don't consul
him in your business decisions or nat
ters. Don't consult him in this. Se
Major Hugh r. Riley or Lieut. r G
Moss, and have them explain anythln;
you wish to know and. If satisfied, sigl
up. Some Of the foremost young cit
izens of the town have already joined