The Green Forest tribune., 1917-06-08

Ine SldHudFu OI pFOHclency WHICH SOIHe of the National Guard outfits are maintaining today.
 Building Up the Army.
 A regiment of regular infantry, for instance, will be split into three bat talions, and with each battalion as a nucleus, a new regiment will be con- structed. Taking it on the three-bat- talion basis, there will be two battal- lions of recruits to one of veterans in the new organizations.
 Of course this proportion will not run through the entire army, but It will come pretty close to so doing, because virtually 100000 men will have been added to the standing force, which at the beginning consisted of only about 100000 men.
 It can be seen, therefore readily enough that a regiment of National Guardsmen which has seen service on the border and which has been kept intact in spirit, in discipline and in drill, will for it's main part be in bet ter trim for front service than a reg iment of regulars two-thirds of whom are now in the business.
 Of course the regular-army men will have the advantage of training given by officers of long, hard service. The recruits in the course of few months will attain the standard of their com panion regulars, and the new regi- ments in trim and efficiency will be equal to the organizations as they ex- isted before being split up into small units about which to build up new for nations.
 Russia and American Help.
 It is only in the most general way probably that the commission to Russia of which Elihu Root is the chief was given instructions. The members have, of course, a guiding principle, but they will be moved to this course or to that by conditions as they exist in Russia.
 With American engineers on their way to Russia. and with this other commission of pleading and instruc- tion" starting on its way, Washington is looking half fearfully, half hopeful ly to the future. What is to be ac- complished by American effort in the Land of Doubt?
 It is known definitely that the rock on which the chief structure of hope of success is founded is that which will bear up strongly the direct statements of the Americans that no democracy Fr,, cratic state can afford to break faith with other democracies and to make terms with despotism.
 Everything which has come to the officials in Washington from Russia bears out first belief that the masses not understand the situation as 1t is related specifically to a conflict be- tween democracy and autOcracy. American socialists have told Ameri- can nonsocialists that millions of Rus sians see simply in the present situ- alton chance to secure peace for themselves and thereby to help in the securing of permanent peace for the whole world.
 Russian Masses Must Be Taught.
 There is the blackness of ignorance throughout a great part of Russia and for it the former ear and his men and his methods have been held responsi- ble. The enlightenment, so socialists here say, that is needed is one which will make plain to the Russians the pathway of democraey's duty in such war as this. American socialists, or some of them, at any rate, believe that liberty so recently founded in Rus sia will be lost quickly to some Man on Horseback" if pledges to the allies are repudiated and peace is sought with Germany.
 So it is that the belief, seemingly substantial, is that Elihu Root and his colleagues will do what they can al most on the instant of their arrival in Russia to impress upon the leaders and the people, the workingmen and the soldiers that the surest way to lose the gift of freedom is to make friends with freedoms enemies.
 It has been held in Washington that a plan of American participation in the campaigns in Europe unquestion- ably would include one for participa- tion in the fighting on the east front. Four American army officers are ac- companying the commission to Russia, One of them is campaigner of many years, strategist and man known for his persuasive powers. It seems altogether unlikely that Maj. Gen. Hugh L. Scott, chief of staff of the United States army, would have been sent with the commission unless the in- tention, if Russia holds firm, is to send a "heartening force" of the soldiers of one republic to fight side by side with the soldiers of another.
 
 A Much Travelled Person.
 A young man, who has been a gun ner's mate for number of years, but ic now tryinU to ppt others tO enlist