Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-08-01

system by which We can surely raise the
army to war strength. The foreign ma
tons really have that war strength avail
able and ready. They carry its members
on their rolls. America carries its war
strength in imagination. The nations az
Europe know where to put their finger
on every man whom they shall want.
America trusts TO luck. although the wars
of the Revolution, of 1872. the Mexican
war, the civil war and later the Spanish
war have taught in unbroken. stern Sc
quence that there is no such luck
Europe has the war strength as surely
II every man Of that strength were
under arms. These thousands and hun
dreds of thousands of men who are al
ready trained and always ready are not
in uniform and are earning their liveli-
hood in peaceful pursuits when there is
no war But they are an army as surely
as II they always stood in line. They
are an army because they are "in re-
serve" The nation does not have to
depend on them to volunteer II they fee,
like 1t. When the need comes they must
serve.
The system OF army reserve proposed
for America is not in any sense com.
pulsory military service of the kind
that makes Europe great array OF
nightly armed nations. There Is no
suggestion that the reserve system
shall include the general citizenship,
1t will be formed wholly by the men
who enlist voluntarily with the regu-
lar army, as they do now.
These men will form the war strength
that shall stand in continual. ever
ready preparedness behind the "skele-
ton" standing army. They must re-
spond when they are called. 1t will
not be left to their discretion. But the
"compulsion' is only the compulston
that lies on every man in every sta
ton of life to keep his agreement.
Under a reserve system the regular
army will depend wholly on voluntary
enlistment. as it does now. When
man enlists he will understand that
he must undertake the obligation to
with the colors. If he does not wish
to do this he need not enlist.
AS a matter of fact. however. the ad-
vantages that are offered to every en-
listed man in any sound reserve sys-
tenn are such that 1T will make service
in the army far more attractive than 1t
is now. Thus it will not only make
the present peace strength a sound
thing, but it will encourage recruiting
up to the limit of that peace strength
To understand how unsound the peace
strength principle is without its nee
essary complement of trained re-
serve it must be understood that the
peace strength formation of the Amer
lean army does not merely make the
army as a whole short so many thou
sand men in the gross. The peace
strength shortage permeates all the
army formations. There is not COM
pany, a battalion. a regiment or bril-
gade that could be put into the field at
any time with a full quota of men.
The teaching of military experience
is that the most favorable numerical
ARRANGEMENT for the smallest admin
istrative army unit, the company, is
$50 men commanded by one captain
and two lieutenants with the necessary
sergeants and corporals.
Under peace strength the infantry
company in the United States Army
contains sixty-five men. Therefore to
build 1t up to its war strength eighty
five men should have to be put into it.
1t will be obvious to every reader that
if those eighty-f1ve men are unframed
the sixty-five will be overwhelmed.
They will not only be unable to stiffen
and support the raw recruits with
their own skill and knowledge. but
their own value absolutely will be an
initiated. The company OF siXty-nve
trained men will become mob of $50
men who cannot pull together under
any possible circumstances.
Therein lies the great danger of
peace strength to the American army.
If that peace strength is to be in
creased to war strength by systemless.
haphazard volunteering the confusion
and decentralization thus entailed on all
poison injected into a main artery.
THE END.
Copyright. 1915, by J. W. MullerD