The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1917-03-30
To Raise Army
Through West

New York, March 25.--In antici-
patton of possible need for volunteers
in case of war, and to demonstrate
that the West, if somewhat tardily, is
awakening to the need of national
preparedness, an informal organiza-
ton of mining and railroad men and
capitalists of the Rocky Mountain re-
gion and the Pacific coast aims to
prepare that section for the ready en-
listmcnt of a volunteer army. The
preliminary work is in charge of Maj.
Frederick Russell Burnham, 'front.'
iersman, mining expert, explorer, and
big game hunter, who was chief of
scouts for Lord Roberts in the Boer
war, won the D. S. o., and has the
distinction of being the only Amer
lean who ever held a commission in
the British army without being COM
PEELED to make at least technical re-
nunciation of American allegiance.
Until more definite organization is
perfected the names of the most of
those behind the enterprise will not
be made public, but among those al
ready known are John Hays Ham
mond, David M. Goodrich, and j..
Parke Charming. Practically all the
members of the Rocky Mountain Club,
which is the principal center of Far
Westerners, particularly mining ex-
perts and engineers, in New York,
are said to be in favor of the move
ment, although the club has not TAX
en- action as a body.
To Card-Index Volunteers.
Maj Burnham said he had received
answers TO more than 100 kilograms,
which he had sent to his personal
friends in the West laying the mat
ter before them, and that, with few
exceptions, they had announced their
hearty cooperation. The entire coun-
try west of the Missouri is to be dis
tricted and local headquarters estab-
lished to begin the work of "card-in-
dexing the volunteers, as Maj. Burn
ham expressed it. Maj. Burnham
himself is not only directing the
general organization, but will also
have direct charge of a district in
Southern and Central California,
with headquarters at Los Angeles,
Blythe and Visalia.
to wake up to the need of prepared
ness" said Maj. Burnham, Gust as it
took the East a certain time to real
ize it, though naturally here you
awoke more quickly on account of
your nearness to the war in Europe.
But | think at last the need is being
realized. The men who are interested
in this work believe that universal SER
vice must come in the end, and they
are convinced that this sort of Con-
gress will not pass any sort of bill
for the improvement of our military
situation. So little groups have been
getting together for some time past
to see what we can do, and this plan
is the result.
Men of Middle Age.
"The object at present is to get to-
gether by personal contact with our
friends and acquaintance the men
who will be willing and able to come
out and serve in case of war. And
one thing that must be remembered
about this is that the men whom we
shall enroll are mostly men of mid
die age, who would not be covered by
a universal bill that would deal with
the training of boys on the thresh-
hold of manhood. They will lie real
volunteers and you can be sure that
II any man on our rolls fails to APP
pear in the ranks in time of war, it
will be because he has broken his leg,
or something of that sort; and even
then he will provide capable SUBJ
stitute.
1--WE hope, if possible, to be able to
give our men some sort of prelimi-
nary training. 1t has been suggested
that the sort of volunteers who would
first respond to an appeal of this sort
would be for the most part suitable
material for officers, and nothing
would give US greater pleasure than
to be forced to disband one of our
regiments to furnish officers with
some training for men as yet I'M
trained. | don't know how much can
be done in the way of training men at
present, or what equipment will be
available; probably very little, for
equipment is scarce the country over
But we want to enroll the men who
would go in each district-several
hundred thousand if we can-and
then offer them to the War Depart
ment or the Governors of the States
or whatever may be the proper au-
thority in case of hostilities. If there
is no immediate need, the men who
are interested in this movement will
do what they can to forward the
claims OF universal service"