New-York tribune., 1916-07-12
Employers, in Increasing
Numbers, Refuse to Keep
Militia on Rolls.
GEN. O'RYAN STARTS
AN INVESTIGATION
Orders to Release Men with
Dependent Families Fail to
Reach Texas.
BY ROBERT II. ROHDE.

Headquarters 9th Field Division. u.
6. A.. McAllen. Tex, July l1.-First 1t
was the "honor list" when patriotic
enthusiasm was running high in New
York and employers were promising
to keep their guardsmen employees on
the paroll as long as Uncle Sam needed
them. Now comes the other side.
Reports are coming to division head
quarters in increasing numbers OF
failure by employers to live up to their
promises Major General John f..
Organ is forwarding them TO New
York for investigation.
The War Department order direct
ing that furloughs be granted TO men
with dependent families and businesses
which are suffering in their absence
has not yet arrived. II is probably on
the way.
Perhaps so per cent of the men in
camp might be able TO qualify for fur
Tough under the order" said Major
Franklin w. Ward, assistant chief Of
staff TO Major General Organ and
Division Intelligence Officer. Whether
so many men will be permitted to leave,
cannot say. Probably 1t will be left
to their regimentel commanders. How
ever. their places would be hlied at
once by recruits. The attitude of the
employers back home. of course, will
have much to do with the percentage
Of the personnel granted leaves"
Town Grows In a Night.
At Pharr, the headquarters of the Sd
Brigade, on the left of the line. city
under canvas has sprung up overnight.
At Sundown yesterday, the great
cleared camp site in the brush was de-
serted At noon to-day. row after row
Of company streets had been laid out,
with tents lifted along either side
and not enough space remaining
TO accommodate the Fighting 69th,'
which is TO be brigaded with the two
regiments already there-the 74th In
fantry, of Buffalo. and the 23d Infantry,
Of Brooklyn. Brigadier General Will
lam Wilson, Of Buffalo. commander OF
the Sd Brigade, arrived with the troops.
81 haven't any very ambitious pro-
gramme mapped out" he said. Until
they get acclimated I'm going to let
the boys go along easy"
Likely enough the men of the Sd
Brigade will have an opportunity for
rife practice by the time they get IN
ranges. One midway between McAllen
and Mission for the 1st and I'd brlgades
and a smaller one at Pharr for the Sd
is to begin tomorrow.
The work on the range will be Of
prime importance in preparing the men
for the field. Fully half have never
fired a gun. Under the direction of a
newly organized military board Of
health a cleanup OF the Mexican quar-
ters in McAllen, a quarter that is much
larger than the American end of the
town, was begun to-day. Sanitary con-
ditions in the camp, it is announced,
have been brought so near perfection
that the only danger of disease lies in
the novels where the Mexicans live,
half a dozen in a room. The medical
department will also have a base hos
pital for the division in operation at
Brownsville by August
Ice Plant for 7th.
Thanks to the proverbial versatility
of the 18th Regiment, McAllen will be
making its own ice at the rate of ten
tons day by Thursday, or else Lieu
tenant Max Wainer, of the regular
army, detailed as depot quartermaster,
is going TO lose a months pay.
When Wainer learned that all the
ice for town and camp was being hauled
from Mission he introduced the man
ager of the Rio Grande Public Service
Corporation to the mess sergeant Of
B Company in the 7th.
At home Sergeant Gilmore II. Craw-
ford is chief erection engineer for the
De La Vergne Ice Machine Company.
Contractors who had been consulted by
the manager had estimated it would
take five weeks 20 install the icemak-
ing machinery, which already lay in
hiding in a freight car.
"I'll set it up for you in one week" "
promised Crawford.
"And I'll bet a months pay that