Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1916-11-12
Many MILITIA
HEADS RESIGN
Flood Of designations Flow Into
The Washington War De-
partment
RANKS AT ONLY. FORTY ST.
PER CENT WARssTRENGTH
Facts Will Soon Be- Barred In De.
tailed Report to be Submitted
to Congress ...

| Io616uALlOuS, sent ny m1utld OMCcSoi
Is pouring in on the war department
and 355 designations of militia officers
have been accepted by President VIII.
son in the three-month period from
July 20 to October rs.
This is probably less than half OF
the number Of designations that have
been rendered.
Data as to the latter have not been
compiled by the war department, but
officials estimate that fully 700 mill:
tia officers have sought to get out OF
the service since the president or.
dered the, militia to the. border last
spring ~; 's%$sss},! ~. .
on May 8 the president ordered the
| Texas, Arizona and New Mexico ma
/ tional guard to mobilize. This order
twas followed by a general order to
all the states to mobilize designated
portions Of their militia. I, The total
number Of militia ordered out was ap'
proximately 100000 men. The quota
Of commissioned omcers, for this
number Of militia is approximately
1000. pr .>r
Thus, nearly 9 per cent Of all com
missioned officers ordered to the Dor
der have succeeded In separating
themselves from the service! "
And it is estimated by army OH
GERS that fully 20 per cent have sought
to resign! The exact figures will ap'
pear in q report to congress In De-
cember.
OF the 355 officers whose resigna'
lions were accepted in the three'
month period in question, 237 were
lieutenants, 81 captains, r.. majors
and is chaplains. $3.50 .'. .'., 80 80
The infantry: arm Of the service nat.
urally lost the most officers. No less
than .230 Of It's commissioned ,ofhcsrs
have resigned, The smaller contin.
/ gents OF cavalry, field artillery and
engineer troops have had proportion
ate losses. In the cavalry, ~ commits
stoned officers resigned; III, the feld
artillery, Al lett the service, and the
engineers lost 3 officers. In addition
GA commissioned officers belonging e
auxiliary arms Of the service-includ
ing medical corps. quartermastel
corps and signal 'corps-h&ve quit.
r." New York state, which sent the
largest contingent OF troops, has like
wise sent I'D the largest number 'ot
designations; so commissioned ON
GERS Of the New York militia have
quit in three months Alabama hal
lost Is militia omcers by resigna'
ton; the Illinois regiments have lost
% Of their Officers; Pennsylvania
.,,rA. ,ari,x, AT - - ~ ln,,c % hornos
Kentucky contributed 10 to the list Of
designations; Iowa had 16; Georgia
had IA; Connecticut and Michigan
have had - designations each; the
other states follow with proportionate
losses.
the number of designations received
daily, and the army ohicers say that
the end apparently Is q long way on
Added to this decentralization among
the officers is the equally serious Diff
flculty Of getting men to fill up the
ranks. The units at the front are
only about 10 per cent Of war strength
and all efforts to get the Remaining
go per cent to FIJI up the units have
been fruitless. These facts lead the
war department oficials to believe
that the militia has fallen down telri.
bly, in the first test to which It has
been subjected. =
They realize that congress will be
called on early in December to con
slider this matter and these will be
among the facts reported on the mo
biliztion. -,