New Britain herald., 1916-05-18
OUR NEW ARMY.
n1ent.

From this distance, it seems that 1 the agreement reached between the conferees on the army bill is not just what the greater army men wanted
 nor yet has it come up, or down, to
 the expectations of the little army
 men, or the peace-at-any-price ele-
 ment in the nation. Senator Cham
 berlain, who is one of the strongest advocates of real preparedness, while not entirely depressed over the con-
 dition of affairs, is not even edging
 near the state of elation. He thinks
 however, that while possibly disap-
 pointing to some, the army bill will
 be welcomed by the reasonable and unprejudiced as "a good bill" Rep- resentative Hay is elated over what he terms victory, in that 1t may be seven years before any sort of an army can be built up, and then the people of the nation will have lost some of the zeal brought on by the present spirit of preparedness sweeping the nation. The general staff of the army, while not being allowed to publicly voice it's approval or disapproval, is understood to be somewhat disap- pointed at the outcome of what prom ised to be something worth while. While this directing body will not have as large a working basis as it might like, nevertheless, experts de- ic 1ai that any number of officers and men can be whipped into shape and made the nucleus of a great army within the course of two or three years. In the event that the war abroad holds the attention of the belligerents of Europe for some months to come, as there is every reason to believe, the United States army will have chance to catch up with itself It is pointed out by Senator Chamberlain that the agreement which was entered into on the army bill, and which will now be enacted into a law provides, for the first time in our history flor an army that is well balanced throughout and which will be an efficient fighting ma- chine" Says the Senator: ''The bill provides for troops enough for the re- quired overseas garrisons, and the re- maining troops at home will be such as will make up complete brigades and divisions, and the regular army will no longer be a Init and miss collection of regiments and battalions, as it has
 heretofore been, due to piecemeal leg islation of former years" Under it's
 terms the army can be so adjusted
 as to meet any and all exigencies. That is, the internal structure of the
 regiments and companies of all arms
 have been so arranged as to permit of automatic expansion. Lessons learned in recent wars have been instrumental in shaping the new organization.
 Under this new order of things, the volunteer army has been abandoned. This will be looked upon as an un- fortunate thing in many circles. In place of that section of the Senate bill which provided for the volunteer army there has been written a provision Tor training camps wherein persons who do not join the National Guard may De educated for the military at the ex- pense of the Federal Government Then again, it must not be forgotten
 'Ht't Congress can, under previous
 ld"' authorize the President of the ] ChlIeo States to draft a suitable force
 in case of emergency. Under the new
 bill the National Guard will be given the importance its advocates have