The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1916-04-06
By f. II. JOHNS.

No provision Of the Senate army bill,
aside from the increasing OF the strength
Of the army. is regarded by the General
STAFF as being more important than that
one which authorizes the President 10
employ postmasters as recruiting agents
This it is thought. will solve the prob
lem of recruiting the army and regular
army reserves. which promises to be one
of the most troublesome in connection
with securing an adequate force Of first
line troops.
No fault is found with the manner in
which the Adjutant Generals depart
ment is conducting the recruiting for the
army. Adjt Gen. Mccain, 1t is generally
acknowledged, has brought the recruit
ing service up to a high state of ett1Ci-
sency and has on duty in his department
some of the abIest officers in the army.
The claim is made that his resources are
simply inadequate. Even with the eN-
pansion of the recruiting service to take
care of the recent increase in the army
that has been authorized by Congress
the Adjutant General has only about 20
recruiting stations.
1t is insisted that the country is not
covered by this limited number Of re-
cruiting stations. and it would be too ex-
pensive to detail sufficient number OF
officers for recruiting service to cover
the ountry as it should be. BY the pas
sage of the Senate bill every postmaster
would become recruiting agent for the
army. This would give the army 56eU
recruiting stations. as compared with
go, which are the present resources of
the Adtutant General OF course the
postmasters would work under the direc-
ton of the Adjutant General and the re-
cruiting officers in the field
The advocates Of this provision insist
that the increase of 10000 in the strength
of the army which has been authorized
would have been recruited in a few days
If the postmasters had been employed on
the terms fixed by the Senate bill. If
every third postmaster had been able to
secure an accepted recruit. the entire DO
&C., counting those that have been en-
listed by the regular recruiting services,
would have been secured in the first week
after the law had been passed.
One OF the features of the bill which
ought to appeal to Congress is that the
cost of securing recruits would be actual
~ reduced under the Senate bill. At pres
ent the average cost Of putting a recruits
name on the muster roll is SO. The Sem
ate bill makes an allowance to the post
master of s. for every accepted recruit
and S for medical examination by de-
SignatCd physician. rms Is a niue more
than half the present cost Of securing
recruit by the Adjutant Generals De-
partmcnt. The additional recruits secured
by the postmasters would not materially
increase the expenses of the recruiting
service
But far more important than the pres
ent needs of the regular army is the
development of an adequate recruiting
system for war The instruction and
training that postmasters will receive
from recruiting officers would make
them available to handle the gigantic
task of raising large army in the event
of war. They would also fit into any
system for raising a citizen army for
training in time of peace.
With the return of the fleet from
Guantanamo on April Is. the navy yards
will be over burdcned with work. Even
now the yards are busy. and with the
docking period of about a month which
the ships of the fleet will spend at their
home yards, shore stations will be about
as busy as in wartime.
q At present the GeOI Cia and Virginia
are being overhauIed at the Boston
yard7. \ large ilotilIG OF submarines arc
being remodeled at New York yards, the
Connecticut and Minnesota are being re-
paired at Philadelphia and the New