The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-10-01
FIRST DRAFT TO
START in SPRING
Primary Army Will be Sent to
France for Completion of Train
ing, and in Meantime Other Pre-
parations for Army to be Speeded
Tin

WASHINGTON, D. C.-Plans are
now In preparation at the war de-
partment, according to information
obtained, to have large proportion
of the drafted men now entering
training camps in France by early
spring.
It is proposed to give the men the
rudiments of military duty and then
transport them to the American base
in France. There they will be put
thru a course of intensive training.
BY these means it is believed they
will develop much more rapidly as
soldiers besides opening the way to
the training of additional hundreds
of thousands to be secured thru a
second draft.
Preparing Second Call
This call will be much sooner
than has generally been believed, it
is intimated. and this is largely the
reason why the war department is
so much interested at present in
proceeding with the immediate ex-
animation of the 100000 register
ed men who have not yet been call
ed.
This proposition is tied up tenn
porarily by the fact that an appro-
priation is necessary before the work
can proceed. The required appro-
priation is included in the general
deficiency bill now before congress.
Figures are extremely taboo with
the war department these day, but
it is no violation of the spirit of the
letter of the censorship provision to
state that it is hoped to move ap-
proximately $4,000 to 100000 Of
the drafted men to France to COM
plete their training there.
1t is hoped in some quarters that
this can be done by the end of April
These troops would not be avail
able for trench work until late in
the summer at the earliest, but they
would be in France and the political
effect of their numbers would be
great.
Filling Gaps
The difficulty is not so much the
men themselves as maintaining them
once they are overseas. Expert es-
Inmates place the ratio at 20 tons
of shipping to MAINTAIN one man. BY
almost continuous movement OF
drafted men to France after training
period, the war department believes
the instruction of men here at the
camps can be made more effective.
Selective men would be called up
on in comparatively small incre-
ments to fill the gaps as the earlier
conscripts we're sent overseas. These
men would come into camps where
military training will be we'll along.
and where rudimentary knowledge
had beena drilled into the raw re-
cruits and under these conditions
with men who had gone thru the
mill all around them to help and
advise the later conscripts would
progress much more rapidly in their
work, it is pointed out, than If
brought in as they are being at pres
ent-by hundreds of thousands.
On Big Scale
The mobilization of the United
States forces is proceeding on tire
mendous scale-one not even dream
ed of by the layman-but the fact
remains that while much success is
attending the governments efforts,
the transocean movement is slower
than is generally belived. Even the
movement of men to camps is on
slow schedule.
Where there was talk only few
weeks ago of 100000 men in France
by spring, the prospects now are
that the active fighting forces-reg-
ulars and national guard, will be
nearer 100000 than 100000.
The national guard has been mo-
billing for six weeks. Approx
mately 100000 men remain to move
to camp, but it will be a month be-
foro +bo ooxyopnort 10 nOrnn1ntnd