Evening star., 1915-12-18
Adjutant General Reports
Total Strength at 105, 1898
Officers and Enlisted Men.
STATES NUMBER ON DUTY
AT THE MEXICAN BORDER
Per Cent of Desertions Slightly In
creased-Many Applicants for
Enlistment Rejected.

According to the annual report of Adjt
Gen Mccain. the full strength OF
the army at the close of the fiscal year
was 105,993 officers and enlisted men. of
| whom 6S,25S We're on duty in continental
| United States, 4S6 officers and 14,354 en-
| listed men of this force being on duty on
or near the Mexican border. On that date
there We're 21S vacancies in commissioned
ranks, 1856 of which have since been filled
| from the Military Academy graduates,
and 1,7S6 in the enlisted personnel, as
against 1913 the preceding year. New
methods of recruiting have materially re-
duced the number of vacancies. the re-
port says.
| On the retired list were 1.Oo5 officers,
less than "a per cent of whom served in
any capacity during the civil war. and
| the enlisted mems retired list numbered
4,O2S. 1t is from this force we'll as
from the 39,430 graduates of schools with
military courses since 1905 that it is eX
pected to draw officers for the proposed
| continental army. Students enrolled in
the SO schools having military courses
numbered 32,Sl3 during 1915.
Record of Desertions.
| The desertion record for the year
| 4,435-was 3.23 per cent. as against 3.1O
per cent the preceding year, the two
colored cavalry regiments, the 9th and
10th. and the 7th Infantry again lead
ing In the least number of desertions
per regiment. OF the white troops $40
per cent and of the colored troops 0.44
per cent were reported as deserters, as
compared with 3.23 for the whole army.
There was a decrease in the percentage
of desertions among colored troops, as
compared with the preceding year. of
90 per cent. and an increase among
white troops of OH per cent
OF 179,019 applicants for enlistment
who appeared during the year 123, 731
were rejected for various reasons, in
Guiding 10000 because of minority, 5000
because they We're aliens and 5000 for
army, including the Philippine Scouts.
during the year was 4S,S13 men. Of
these nearly 80 per cent were native
born Americans, as has been the case
for the last four years.
Commends Civilian Employees.
Adjt Gen. Mccain expresses his ap-
probation of the energy and interest of
the civilian employees of his office in
their work. and says:
THE reductions in the clerical force,
made from time to time during the past
twenty years, were made possible by
methods used in the office. However.
it is believed that the minimum of that
force has been reached and that fur
ther reductions cannot be made with
out detriment to the public business.
In fact, since the latest reductions.
work on authorized non-current compi-
lations being made from the official
records has been necessarily reduced
to minimum 1t is suggested that at
some future date it might be desirable
to make some increase in the number
of clerks allowed by law, so that
force will be available not only to push
such com piiations to conclusion, but
also to provide material to be trained
in the current work of the Office, so
that. in case of emergency, there would
be trained employees available and the
Office would not be compelled to de-
pend upon an unframed force of tenn
porary employees to take care of the
added work. as was necessary during
the war with Spain.