The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-09-28
Pictures of Handsome Soldiers
ON Green Fields Ineffective.
Dollar a Day Pay Is Requisite,
Says San FARRELL.
TOPEKAN HOME FROM BORDER
DisiIIusiOned Guard Tells of
Beans and Prunes.
Long Hours of Drill and Camp
Drudgery There.


Doing time in the army is an I'M |
profitable, unpleasant duty which the
government requires a small number
of its citizens to perform for the whole
people. A large number of the men in
the National Guard have no complaint
to make, as nothing happened to them
on the Mexican border that they did
not expect, for every man who has
read the history of war knows that
military life is not a round of la-da-da
functions with brick ice cream and
cake.
Serving in the army means a lack
of. all the conveniences found at home;
denial of associations which make for
character building; long hours of drill
and camp drudgery; unpalatable grub
three times a day; and for all of which
hardship the soldier is paid SIS a
month.
The man who knows what he is
going up against when he joins the
army, or the National Guard in active
field service, suffers no dissappoint-
ment. and comes home with his ideals
intact; but the poor mollycoddle who
counts on an easy time, hero stuff
and a story book career will have his
childish illusions mashed flatter than
a Mexican pancake.
Reform Is Needed.
My experience leads me to believe
that the government will have to un-
dergo radical reform in its treatment
of soldiers If 1t gets anywhere with the
work of recruiting for the army. 1t
is unfair to require one man to give
up his business and everything else
that makes life worth while to serve
his country for practically nothing,
while his neighbors are permitted to
stay at home and profit by his sacri
flee. Every able bodied citizen should
bear his share of the army burden,
either in active service, or money pay
ment. Those who do not want to
answer the call for military duty
should pay a living wage to men
who are willing to do so. I am sure
that every enlisted man in my regi-
ment, the Third Missouri infantry,
feels as I do.
The National Guard IS gradually be-
ing recalled from the border, and sew
eral regiments, including tbs Third
Missouri. have already been mustered
out of federal service. 1 believe it will
only be matter of time before the
entire guard will be brought home.
There is a striking difference be-
tween the training the guardsmen and
the regular soldiers are getting on the
Rio Grande. The militia draws about
five hours of hard drilling daily, while
the regulars drill half an hour once or
twice a week. The regular troops are
of course seasoned and acclimated.
but it is a question to many familiar
with the border If they are as fit for
active service as the militia troops,
who have been earning their princely
pay with real work.
Tell OF Boiled Beans.
The enlisted men in the National
Guard will not bring home any tales
of the glamor and glory attached to
the service. They will instead tell
their families and their frienos of the
more unpleasant features of the sum-
mer, the boiled beans and stewed
prunes and alkali water and, in some
| instances, inferior equipment. That
will not have tendency to stimulate
recruiting in case of actual war. There
are several things, in my opinion that
are necessary before any great prog
ress will be made in building up
standing army. or reserve army, to
a standard necessary for country as
large and as powerful as the United
States.
Perhaps the most essential thing
is pay. Men were called into service
in the national guard who were forced
| to give up good jobs families, friends
good eating, etc, for so cents a day.
The enlisted men in the regular army
are men who take up soldering as an
occupation and they are usually satis-
fled with their low pay.
| . "A dollar a day, with board and
| clothing furnished by the government
will have more effect in increasing
the status of the army than all the
pretty pictures of handsome soldiers
gazing at hills and rivers thru field
| glasses.
tenn Of military training in the United
States can find much in the present
border service of the national guard
on which to base their arguments.