Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-08-19

in most instances. haYe been without
trained officers to lead them.
The President and Congress and the
people will be asked to provide means
for the development of a strong corps
OF reserve officers. There are many
plans for making this possible. The
nrst suggestion is to double the ca
pacity of the military schools and to
graduate double the number of men
from them. The need is greatest in
the army ard to supply this need West
Point could. under such an arrange
men. each year.
Hundred men a Year
The number turned out by that in
stltutton annually has been below a
hundred for each year of the last five
until the present when ii jumped to
1853. A hundred men year, going
from West Point into the reserve Off
Ger lists would, in twenty years, build
up such a reserve 1000 strong and
maintain 1t thereafter. An education
at West Point with a possibility of
service only in case of war would be
more attractive to the youth of the
nation than such course requiring a
military career after graduation. A
similar increase in the number of
men graduated from the Naval Acad-
emy at Annapolis would supply the
needs of that branch of the service.
| 1t is found that the nation has other
resources for the production of re-
serve officers. There are for instance,
the land grant colleges, one in each
State, which receive stipends each
| year from the federal government and
which, because of it, have cadet corps
in which service is mandatory.
These colleges, in a four-year course,
give the student a considerable appre-
lafa @f ,,,s,, T..
posed that the equipment of these coll
leges be materially improved and that
the training be consequently bettered.
1t is proposed that all students gradu-
ating from such colleges and passing
satisfactory examinations, be given an
opportunity for years service in the
regular army with the rank and pay
of a second lieutenant. Another pro-
Iposal is that these youngsters should
spend five weeks with the army at the
completion of the junior and senior
years and then be given their reserve
commissions upon passing examinations
| So would a reserve force of officers
with less training than those gradual
ing from West Point be provided
These Is yet another class of insti-
tuition that might be relied upon to
furnish good material for reserve off,
GERS. There are military schools in
the nation, mostly private, aside from
those which the government helps
support and which turn out about TO-
4 900 graduates a year. These men are
good material for reserve officers
They need a bit of actual service to
bring home their theoretical training
Provision might be made to give these
men second lieutenant's commissions
for a year upon the passage of salts
factory examinations. Then they
might be placed on the reserve Off
GERS list.
There are even the cadet corps oi
the many high schools that give mill
tary training and whose courses would
be of great value in the making of q
new army out of raw material. These
boys might be taken to encampments
operated under regular army condi-
tions and trained to the duties of non
commissioned officers. When an army
was in the making they might perform
valuable service as drill sergeants an6
find themselves we'll along TOWARD
commissions by the time they got tc
} the front.