The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1916-08-20
Order Freeing College Boys
:. DemOraIizeS Army on
the Border.

Ell PAsO, Tex, Aug. 19.-The war
department may not know it, but 1t is
demoraltzing the army on the Mexican
border.
1t may not be the war department
alone which is responsible, 1t may only
be executing the fatal maneuverS Of
the Democratic steering committee,
which, in a national campaign year,
is endeavoring to be all things to all
men.
Perhaps no other army in the field
has ever before been SO handicapped
with futile, foolish unfair orders as
are being sent to the army on the
Mexican border. The apparent pur-
pose of these orders is to please some
paciAst The only practical result
has been TO create discomfort, Confu-
sion and class feeling and bitterness.
Orders Make Trouble.
One such order was to let all mar
ried men with dependents go home.
A later order of the same kind is Of
mandatory character, to grant all
college men their discharges on or
after September /, to let them return
to their studies.
Both orders have stirred up no end
Of trouble for all STAFF and line off,
GERS along the border and seriously
threaten to undermine all discipline
and morals Of the army.
why should college men be ex-
exempted from fulfilling their sworn
duty?" asks the rest of the army. why
cant go home and finish my four
years apprenticeship in the factory?"
asks hatmaker, bollermaker and brick
layer and weaver.
That is the trouble in its narrow
est sense. More broadly taken, It has
amazed and depressed the army to
learn that the war department con-
sidors college men of more importance
than soldiers.
The war department apparently,
does not realize 1t, but this is mighty
poor way of backing up the army on
the border. This army of patriotic,
self-sacrifcing cltizen-soldiers would
like to feel that their business here
ranks in importance above anything
else in the country.
This border army would like to feel
that 1t is serving a government which
does not cheaper It's services by con-
tinually subordinallng 1t to other pet
ty considerations. In 1898 the colleges
generally excused students in the
army from completing their fall
course. The colleges generally cred
tied enlisted students with the time
for which they had enlisted and we're
kept with the colors.
Will Cripple Troop.
The colleges Of the country, their
directors and faculties, are now
among the most advanced prepared
ness advocates
In Troop H, OF the First Pennsyl-
vania cavalry regiment, there are
twenty-six college students out Of 107
men in the troop. 1t will readily be
seen how crippled this troop would Re
If ell the college men are mustered
out. They don't want to go.
And if all the college men are go
ing to be permitted to go home after
September /, where Is this demobill-
cation by inches going to stop? If
college men are to be exempted why
not trade apprentices? Are the peo-
pie who own stocks going to be ex-
cused next, so that they may be able
to 20 home and watch the fluctuating
markets? Are the business men Of the
militia army going to be kept here
while the school boys go home? And
how about the business fathers who
are here with college sons.
Both the student order and the or
der about married men with depend
entS have created a demoralizing effect
in the army that the government is
not giving it honest treatment.
Take the order about the married
men with dependents. II this order
had meant what it said, it would have
been easy for the war department to
discharge all married men. Several
things could have been said in favor
Of such an order. But the order was
apparently issued only for effect so
that the government might go before
the country and claim that it had
taken no bread-winners away from
their families.
One Husband Goes Home.
But that is not true. The order was
SO circumscribed and had so many
strings tied to it that of all the appli-
cations filed under the order from the
1900 men in the Pennsylvania divis-
ion, only one has been granted.
The result Of the order, therefore.
was not to restore the bread-winners
to their families, but to harass them
needlessly. They had gone to the
front with the consent Of their fami-
lies The employers had granted
them their wages They we're salts
fed and doing their duty without muir
mur But as soon as the war depart
ment order was out, these bread-win-
ners were bombarded with letters
from home asking them why they did
not return.
Ittook weeks to convince the tamt-
lies at home that the bread-winners
were not willfully absepttng them