American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1916-12-21
GUARD MOBILIZATION WAS
TRAGEDY. SAYS GENERALS
AT CONGRESSIONAL HEARING
Country Now Utterly Defenseless Be-
fore Organized Foe; Trained Troops
Would Annihilate Militia on Border.

The mobilization of the national
guard for border service was describ-
ed as a military failure. emphasizing
the urgent necessity of abandoning
the volunteer system as the nations
reliance for defense, in statements
Monday by Major General Hugh L.
Scott, chief of staff of the army, and
Major General Leonard Wood, COM
manding the eastern department. be-
fore the senate subcommittee consid-
ering the Chamberlain universal mill
tary training bill
Both the generals advocated
universal training. General
Wood declared that the country
now was utterly defenseless
against a we'll organized foe;
that the mobilization was a trag-
edy and that if the guardsmen
had met good troops they would
never have known what happened
to them"
General Scott told the committee
that lessons drawn from the present
war proved that in case of wal with
a 4 Slaoo pONtG Tic OHlltu STATES
would need Immediately a trained
force of 100000 men with another
1,500,0 600 available within 80 days.
On the other side of the question
the committee heard Walter L. Fisher
of Chicago, former secretary of the
interior, who opposed universal SER
vice, though he stood for adequate
defense and suggested a
regular army of half a million. He
thought If the pay of privates were
raised to $50 a month the service
would be more attractive to recruits.
General Wood, from whose
department went $4,000 of the
~guardsmen sent to the border
said of the men enrolled when
the call came that an average of
80 per cent of each company had
to be dropped for physical de-
fects and the organizations went
to the border filled up with green
men.
Its been a tragedy" he said, but
worth all it cost if we only profit by
it. 1t was not the fault of the Off
SCio " i.Cns u u d utleCllNt SNS-
tem.If we had been compelled to
meet good troops down there, it
would have been a scene of carnage.
The guardsmen would never have
known what hit them.
What should we do with the ma
tional guard, general?" asked Senator
Brady.
1T should be replaced as rapidly as
possible with men trained under a
universal service SYSTEM" General
Wood replied. When the system has
been well started, it would drop the
national guard entirely from any
scheme of national defense, although
we want every officer and man OF
them in the new plan. But it must
be a straight-out federal force"
yet the states must maintain the
national guard or some other force
Senator Brady suggested.
Il believe a ~constabulary should be
maintained by each state, not a mill.
tary force" explained the general
"The police are trained to control
where troops are trained to cam
paign."
General Wood outlined his own plan
for universal service which in effect
would be a combination of the Cham
berlain bill, itself an adaptation Of
the Australian system and the French
general staff plan. His scheme would
provide that all physically tit men be
given six months training during
their nineteenth year, passing ther
into the organized reserve, to be avail
able for first line duty between the
ages of 81 and %, after which they
would be passed into the unorganizet
reserve until 20. The result would BIZ
a constant force of trained men will
full equipment of more than 1000, 900
he said, in addition to a standing army
of 100000 composed of men who were
professional soldiers by personal in.
clination.
II do not think any nation would