The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1916-02-28
SENATE ARMY PROVISIONS

From the Senate Military Commit
tee there is promise that we shall
get, after all, something like an
army. The Senate measure is ex-
pected to provide for a standing
army to the extent of $4,000 regu-
lar soldiers on peace basis, with an
Organization capable of becoming
225, 900 on a war basis. It would far
better be 225,000 on a peace basis,
but even at 175,000 the terms and
conditions of service will be invalu-
able to the country in building up.
reserve army Of trained soldiers.
That's the problem.
Paper armies, whether Of half
million, or a million, or five million,
don't and can't provide a real re-
serve any more than they provide a
real fighting force of troops pre-
pared to go into battle at the stroke
of war.
We can never have military pre-
paredness without a trained reserve
to be called instantly to the colors
in the emergency Of war, as well as
a regular army always standing un-
der arms. The Senate measure, il
Providence spares US from war for a
few years, would give US not only the
standing army of regular soldiers
the only army which can be Of any
real service when an enemy does
come down upon us-but a large and
growing trained reserve.
The Senate measure provides that
after three years with the colors the
men shall go into the reserve for
four years. They can even exercise
the option of going into the reserve
at the end of two years. But SOL
der found to be well trained and eff
ficient could be discharged by the
War Department into the reserve at
the end of one year. -
At the very last, therefore, bar
ring deaths and disabilities, we
should have at the end Of the first
period of three years 175,000 real
soldiers already made, and 175,000
more in the making.
If at the end of the second year Of
enlistment one man in three exer-
cised his option of going into the re-
serve, and if at the end of the first
year one man in five were found to
be proficient enough to be discharged
into the reserve. we should have re-
suits something like this:
At the end of the first year, a
regular army of 175,000 and a
trained reserve of $4,000; at the end
of the second year, regular army
of 175,000, another $4,000 Of the
one-year reserve class, or 10000 in
all of the one-year reserve class and
$4,000 of the second-year reserve
class, or a regular army ofs175,0O0
and trained reserve Of $4,000, or
300 OO0-at the end Of the SECOND
year.
At the end Of the third year we
should have regular army Of 1885,
900 and a reserve Of 100000 Of the
one-year class and a reserve Of no.
900 of the two-year class, or very
nearly 400,000-regular army SOL
diers and reserve.
BY the end of the seven years
this being the Senate enlistment term
we should be approximating a
trained fighting force in the country
of at least headquarters OF mil.
lion of men, in the prime of their
youth, their bodies and minds alike
seasoned and disciplined, schooled and
skilled in the business of war so fan
as it is possible for men to be, be.
fore the actual test in the mill of the
battlefield itself. If larger proper.
ton could be discharged into the re-
serve after two-year and one-yeal
periods of service, we might very
easily have splendid fighting force
approximating a million real sol
diers.
If we can get anything like thai
: there will be a great deal of com
pensation for politico-military pro
grams which propose to maze vas
! numbers of troops, but cannot pos
J sibly make soldiers out of them. T,
; get what the Senate proposes un
, doubtedly means compulsory servic,
to some extent. Let us not blink tina
truth; let US approve and embrac,