Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1916-06-28
ROOSEVELT NANIS
70 FORM DIVISION
ASKS PERMISSION TO ORGANIZE
VOL UNTEER FORCE If WAR
is DECLARED.
SEEKS COMMISSION
AS MAJOR GENERAL
Wants Real Men For Duties in Mexico
Roosevelt Picking His Men Now
and 10 Receiving Scores Of Requests
For NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Already
We'll Under Way.

New York, June est was learned
today that Colonel Roosevelt is going
to ask the government for permission
to raise a division Of volunteer SOL
diers for service in Mexico the minute
war is declared and call for volun-
teers sent out.
| According to this information, which
came from a reliable, source and con-
firms rumors that have been in circu-
lation for several days, the colonel has
completed his plans for the raising OF
the division and waits only upon the
calling Of volunteers to make his offer.
to Washington He will asck for
commission as major general.
Plans Call For $4,000 Men.
Colonel Roosevelt has made his
plans after copsultation with high
military authorities and they call for
a special division of 1900 men. con-
sisting of four brisades-one of in
fantry, two of cavalry, one Of field
artillery, supplemented by troops in
Guiding engineers, signal corps and
hospital corps.
For months the colonel has had
these plans in his head. for weeks he
has been working them out to the
smallest details against just such an
emergency as existed across the
border and for ten days quiet recruit
ing has been going on in all parts OF
the country by men to whom the
! So ha- anti or
task Such Of the bigger arrangements
as providing horses have been looked
after already and a declaration of war
with Mexico and call for volunteers
will be the signal for an office TO be
opened in or around this city for re-
cruiting and clerical work and for
division headquarters to be estab-
lished, probably in Texas. where the
troops would be assembled
Depends on Wilson.
All of the colonel's plans are de-
pendent upon President Wilson. His
request for commission as major
general commanding a volunteer divis-
ion can be granted or refused at
Washington. but his friends say that
President Wilson would not dare to
gainsay such a request and would. as
matter of fact. be glad to accede
! to it and thus to place an official ban
! of silence on the colonefs utterances
touching on the administration.
Colonel Roosevelt's friends are in
quandary as to- the exact status OF
such a request-as TO whether or not
the sranting> of it depends upon the
president or upon congress, and as the
colonel's age, 81. being barrier to his
entrance into the army at the heao
of body of volunteers. 1t has been
known for a long time that Colonel
Roosevelt was anxious to get into the
fray. 1t was known weeks ago. when
he made the declaration that II war
came he and his four sons and his
SON law would take the field. And
when he was stricken with slight at
tack of pieurisy less than fortnight
ago he Immediately summoned the
best medical counsels he could obtain
and retired to Sycamore Hill for rest
cure, his chief purpose in mind being
ITO get into shape to lead troops In
Mexico If war came.
Lists Officers He Wants.
Since then he has mad innumerable
conferences at his home. which were
generally supposed to be of a political
nature, but many of them had to do
with nothing but the formation of his
special division in the event of war.
AS a result Of these conferences and
as result of the plans he has been
working over for so long, he is said to
have listed the names of officers he
will ask the administration to give
him as regimental and brigade COM
manders. Many Of these officers the
colonel knows well, and others will be
men who have been his close friends
in civil life and who have discussed
his plans with him.
These men have let It be known that
Colonel Roosevelt believes the organi-
zation OF his division will be Of the
quickest and most spectacular from the
standpoint Of efficiency that this coun-
try could expect to see. 1t is said that
the mobilization will be accomplished
in a month, the division will be put into
the field with the most modern equiQ'
ment, with q full quota OF machine
guns and with motor ambulance hospi-
tai corps, and that the men will be
picked from strong and already trained
men.
Wants Real Men.
The recruiting is being largely done
among ex-army men mad former Rough
/ Riders of the west and southwest, and
many of these men are said to have
/, been organized now and are ready to
start for division headquarters when
they are established. Colonel Roose-
Welt is said to have sent out word that
! he doesn't want any man in his divi-
,. sion who can't ride. shoot, take care OF
! himself or his horse, just as he tolI
! the Rough Riders of the Spanish war.
His division, however, will be unlike
I the Rough Riders in all other respects.
! for the colonel is said to have profited
/ by his experience in the Spanish war.
For many days requests have poured
| into Colonel Roosevelt in the thousands
| from other enlisted men who are anxi-
/ Gus to be enrolled in the colonefs regi-
ment IL he should form one. These de-
mands have come by mail and by tele*
graph and the coloners friends say
| that he has carefully sorted out the
wheat from the chaff and has notified
/ those he wanted to get themselves in
readiness. They say that Colonel
Roosevelt has kept his plan as care
/ fully guarded as he could because he
realized that 1t was an extraordinary
situation, former president of the
United States asking a president whom
he has bitterly attacked for permission
| to lead such q body cE treeps-end that
he was loath to have his scheme be-
come known until It could be carried
! thru to its fruition.