Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1917-08-04
SECRETARY BAKER ADMITS STATE
TROOPS WILL BE SENT TO
EUROPE SPEEDILY.
ONLY AWAITING SHIPS
TO TRANSPORT THEM
Cause For Delay Is Shortage Of Vessels
Being Sent to Southern Camps Be-
cause Some Will Be Delayed Until
Cold Weather Arrives-Raker Elk.
plains to Directors.

Washington, Aug. 4.-The first off
cial admission that the administration
intends to rush the national guard
army to France as fast as ships can be
obtained was disclosed today in the
correspondence between Secretary OF
War Baker and Senators Sherman, La
Toilette, and Townsend, who had pro-
tested against sending the Illinois,
Wisconsin. and Michigan troops to
southern training camps
1t is only because of the lack of
shipping sufficient to transport all the
national guard before winter, the war
secretary explains, that the camps
were established in the south, the less
rigorous climate of which would favor
winter training.
Conflict With Navy View.
This war department explanation of
the decision to train the guard in the
south is in curious conflict with the
assurances of the navy department,
that sufficient ships are available to
transport all the troops as fast as the
army chiefs pronounce them ready for
the training camps in France.
This contradiction has not dispelled
from the minds Of many northern sena-
tors and representatives the suspicion
that the real reason for establishing
the great training camps in the south
is Favored with pork barrel" politics.
Senator La Toilette and Senator
Townsend protested against sending
the Wisconsin Michigan guard to
Waco, Tex, which they pronounced in
Tested with malaria. They cited the
United States public health reports.
Secretary Baker replied to this charge,
that at Waco there is no typhoid or
other disease prevalent"
All Depends On Shipping.
In regard to the reasons for sending
the national guard to the south for
training, Secretary Baker said:
cit is intended to send troops to
France as rapidly as the shipping
available will permit. The national
guard, being partly equipped and hav-
ing had several months training On the
border during the last year, can be
made ready for service abroad In less
time than the national army can be.
1.-The plans for transporting our army
abroad depend upon the training and
equipment of the troops and the avail
ability of shipping. II it were possible
to get sufficient shipping to transport
abroad before cold weather all the ma
tional guard divisions in the northern
states, manifestly it would be unneces-
sary to send any Of them to the south
where training can be carried on thru
out all seasons Of the year.
Must Avoid Cold Weather
But the shipping necessary to &C
complish this is not in sight. and,
therefore, it becomes necessary to
gather together in large camps the
units of the guard where, when sys-
tematic training once starts. it can be
continued without interruption or break
due to Indictment weather or other
causes.
"Our troops in training for service in
Europe must be developed along spe-
cial lines for such service. Most of the
national guard units, thru the training
they had on the border last summer,
have a good start on their preliminary
work.
I'VE have not In this country many
officers outside of the regular army
who have made a study of the special
conditions existing In Europe today,
and few have had an opportunity of
proating by personal observation.
Therefore it becomes problem to