The Washington herald., 1916-12-18
Army and Navy News
Beat Service Column fs city.

Compulsory military service will be
strongly recommended by Maj. Gen.
Hugh L. Scott. Chief-of-stanf Of the army,
when he testifies today before the Sen
ate Committee on Military Affairs. Gen.
Scott will show the breakdown of the Ma
donal Guard system in the recent mob
ilization on the border by analysis. will
discuss the failure to recruit the regular
army up to full war strength, will touch
upon the enormous financial outlay that
would be entailed In keeping up a profess
sionai army of the size required by so
large a nation. and will recommend uni
versal and compulsory service as the
only way out.
The attempt to organize the postmas-
ters of the country into recruiting Off
GERS for the regular army has not been
given sufficient trial to prove whether 1t
VIII be success or a failure, according
TO Brig. Gen. Henry p. Mccain, adjutant
general OF the army. Postmasters re-
cruited thirty-four men In September,
thirty In October and sixty-one in No
vember.
To date forty-four schools throughout
the country have applied for designation
Is ,uIIits for the training of officers for
the Reserve Officers Training Corps. ac-
cordihg to Gen. McCsin. 1t is expected
that these schools will furnish $1,000 re-
serve officers by the end of the current
fiscal year. To date 500 reserve officers
have qualified. There are at present $50
schools and colleges having an army Of
ficer detailed as military instructor and
there are more applications for officers
IN such capacity than can be filled.
Representative Fitzgerald, of New York
has announced that the War Depart
ment has informed him 1t will require
S5OO.OOo to take care of dependents of
National Guardsmen now on the border
between now and June 30 the end of the
fiscal year. The last session of Congress
appropriated 100000 for this purpose.
Thirty-two of the biggest hydro-air-
planes yet ordered by the United States
government are to be built by the Bur-
CESS Company at Marblehead, Mass
Without load the machines will weigh
two tons and will be capable of carrying
800 pounds. Their wing span will be
seventy feet and their length more than
thirty feet.
They are to be completed at the earli-
est possible moment and will be used by
the army.
THE concentration of the forces COM
posing the punitive expedition to Mexico
marked a distinct step in military avia-
ton in the United States" according to
the annual report of Brig Gen. George
P. Scriven. chief signal officer of the
army. 1T was the first time this branch
OF the service had been called upon to put
a tactical unit into the field. There was
only one such unit in the service, name
ly, a small squadron, the First, at San
Antonio. This, while equipped with as
good material as could be obtained at
the time, had only eight low-powered ma
chimes. These machines at the time of
their transportation to Columbus had
been in service for many months. The
attitudes encountered in Mexico-up to
1900 feet-the vast distances to be COW
cred, and the lack of cultivated areas and
resources in general made this theater
one of the hardest to operate in which
any army ever had entered The few
machines were rapidly used up. although
they did a great amount of flying and
rendered extremely valuable service to
the punitive expedition.
lone deficiency which made itself very
apparent was the propeller difficulty
that was experienced in the high attitudes
and dry atmosphere OF Northern Mexico.
For a while the difficulty of keeping pro-
pellers in condition and obtaining suit
able ones nulIified the operations OF the
squadron. This, however. proved in the
end to be an advantage, because expert
ence was gained in the construction Of
propellers that could have been obtained
in no other way. All sorts Of propellers
were ordered, a propeller-making plant
establishing at Columbus, and engineer
ing talent all over the country enlisted
in the solution Of the problem"