New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-04-30
Consumption at Last

April 2S. 1917. will be remembered as
the day on which the United States re-
nounced for good and all a fundamental
error in Its military policy. The votes
last Saturday in the two houses of Con-
grcss make it certain that we shall not
depcnd again for the recruitment Of
armies on the unfair, haphazard, unscien-
tifc and extremely costly system Of vol
unteering. We shall make military SER
vice an obligation Of citizenship and shall
mobilize by CONSUMPTION the man power at
cur command, thus getting the best re-
suits not only in the field but in the in
dustries by which our population must be
fed and our armies supplied and equipped.
1t has been an uphill fight to overcome
the tradition Of voluntaryism. The idea
that one may serve the state or not, as he
pleases, had taken deep root in our easy
going American individualism. It fitted
in with the loose structure of our national
organization and with our frontierSman
habits Of thought. In young and sparse
IN settled countries volunteering Is I'm har-
mony with the popular temper. That Is
why Canada and Australia have stuck to
it in this war. Bat in country which
has attained. or is attaining, its growth,
where economic and industrial conditions
are complex volunteering handicaps eff
cheney. 1t hampers national effort, be-
cause it prevents uniication and scien-
tifc selection. 1t is a policy of muddling
and waste.
Ancient prejudces die very hard In
spite of the warnings Of military experts,
in spite Of the failure Of volunteering in
Great Britain and the vindication of con-
scription in the Continental countries, our
people were slow to learn their lesson.
Congress shut its eyes to the facts. 1t
has refused for three years past to make
any genuine military preparation. 1t
scoffed at conscriptiOn. At the last session
it was impossible to get action even on
universal military training bill.
But necessity is a great educator What
Congress would never have dreamed of
doing two months ago it has done now.
Ii has put our military system at last on
stable basis. 1t has now voted conscrip-
ton by overwhelming majOrities in both
houses, not because the members like con-
scription any better than they did last
winter. but because they have suddenly
realized that without it there is no hope
for us in a military sense.
There was a rush Of Congressman on
Saturday to get under cover. The once
formidable anti-conscription cabal melted
away The preparedness machine,
tuilt up with so much care, went to smash.
The Military Affairs Committee of the
20 House, the chief agency there Of moss
backism, had voted in favor of volunteer
ing by 10 to s. II was the decision Of a
packed court. The case for volunteering
rested on cheap sentimentalism. 1t could
not stand the test Of argument. There
could be no repetition of the exhibition of
folly which passed the Hay law. In the
House the volunteer scheme was there
fore rejected on first vote by 90 to 90
and on a second by 3l3 to 100. 1t was a
crushing rep1diation Of the Military AZ
fairs Committee clique. 1t ought to end
the miSchievous activities Of that clique,
to which the country owes so largely its
present desperate condition of unprepared-
ness.
Despite that pacIhst aud anti-prepared
ness cabal and despite the apathy which so
large a part of the public has shown tow
ard rational military preparation, we are
now headed toward the creation of a real
army. That is the cheering thing about
Saturdays vote. We have been late in
repenting-but not TOO late. We shall
now build up an adequate military system
not only for this crisis but for the future
While the country is congratulating it.
self on this result-attained with so much
dificulty-it should remember with~espe-
cial gratitude those whose devoted labors
have had the largest influence in clearing
the way for this indispensable military
refirm. II is not too much to say that
Major General Emory Upton is the real
father of the agitation to do away with
the pernicious volunteer system. His
book. "The Military Policy of the United
States" contained an unanswerable in
dictment Of voluntaryism. 1t was left
unfinished in manuscript on General Up
tons death, in 1881, and lay for twenty
years in the archives Of the War Depart
ment II was rescued from Oblivion in
1904 by Secretary Root and printed as
hubble document 1t became at once the
starting point for the attack on the vicious
volunteering policy which cost the United
States so dearly in all its wars. Upton's
brilliant critique shattered forever the de-
lusion that volunteering had ever been
ANYTHING but calamitous experiment in
our military history.
One other name stands out in the cru
,,de now crowned with success. II is that
Of Major GeEeraI Leonard Wood More