Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1917-03-30
TRAINING FOR ALL
LOOMS IN FUTURE
Senator Chamberlain Talks of
Universal Military Serv-
ice With President.
ARMY MACHINE IN MOTION
Preparedness Measures Still
Occupy Attention of Gov
ernment Officials.

WASHINGTON. March 29.-P!ans
! TO .or ward further preparedness
! measures for the army today began
to assume definite form.
! How an Increased armed force may
! be promptly secured for the present
emergency as well as universal tram
/ ing as a national policy were Gis-
, casscd hy President Wilson with SEN
| ator Chamberlain of oregon, char
man of The senate military committee.
! secretary Baker and administration
| leaders in congress considered lCSis
ldtion needed Immediately for tho
military establishment.
Senator Chamberlain told the pIesi
| dent that ne believed the executive
mas authority without further action
! ly congress TO raise an army of more
/ than scNcr hundred thousand me,
/ by Increasing the regular army t. war
strength and calling ont All the ma
| uonai guard ~ war strength, Witn
cooperation from statc executives.
There WAS no iulimauon tnat the
| PRESIDENT was considcriug such a sten
| Immediately, but the wnolc icld OF
measures necessary to secure large
force was discussed.
prepare Army budget
For present neeCs the war deplrt-
mcnt Secretary Baker said, has do
cidcd to submit TO consrcss a budge'
! containing virtually the same prOVi-
! sIons as the regular army appropria-
ton bill which failed Il, the last ses-
| sion.
| Estimates for the expense OF an en-
! larGed army or any emergency dctiV.
ties VIII be presented later This
decision comedies with the house plan
I to rc-on1ct the appropriation bill
without change ana send it at once to
! the senate.
- Senator Chamberlain also agreed to
expedite the bill i'm the senate. To
this end he said he would not again
offer his universal training bill as n
rider if II would delay prompt action
on the supply measure.
The conference between the presi
dent and Senator Cham berlain was
! primarily to discuss the senator's uni
versal training plan. He asked the
president to endorse the general prln,
ciple of compulsory training in his
| forthcoming message to congress. ThA
president, 1t was said, gave no indl-
J cation of his probable course. He was
said to favor some plan for providing
military training, but was noncom-
initial regarding the Chamberlain
| plan, to whiG,l he is understood to
have some objections.
After leaving the White House
Senator Chamberlain said he was
"still hopeful" of administration en-
dorsement of his measure and also
! expressed optimism over prospects Of
passage by the senate of some form
| of universal training measure. Sew
eral senators, he said, who formerly
opposed the plan now favor it..
Senator Chamberlain expects to
make several important amendments
to his BILL with the idea of increasing
the number of trained soldiers IT
would produce in short period. He
proposed to raise the age limit Of
youths subject to training from l9
to 90 years, to secure more mature
men and to begin the training pc
RODS sooner than provided in the
tentative bill. which proposes that
about five hundred thousand youths
be trained annually with six months
continuous service.
Another amendment, Senator
Chamberlain said, would be to create
| SO divisions in the country for the
segregation of the training work, with
facilities for training an army division
of from $4,000 to 27.000 men In each
divisional camp. While some of the
divisions, Senator Chamberlain thot,
would have larger bodies under train
ing than others, he believed at least
five hundred thousand young men
would thus be secured.
No Enormous Expense.
The oregon senator impressed upon
the president that his plan would not
entail the enormous expense of the
army general staff training bill. He
estimated that the annual cost Of
training five hundred thousand men
would be roughly Sl56, 100000.
AS to the measures necessary Tor
increasing the army in emergency,
Senator Chamberlain said that under
existing law the president Is author
lied to increase the standing army to
its war strength OF 270,0O0 men or
with auXiliaries aggregating a regular
force of about three hundred thou
sand. The war strength of the ma
tional guard was estimated at about
10000 with all forces fully enlisted.
Thus combined, the senator said. with
a trained army of nearly three quar-
ters Of million men could be pro-
vided without action of congress.
When the regular army approp-
ration bill reaches the senate, Sena-
tor Chamberlain said he thot 1t would
be increased. with or without specific
request from the war department. at
least sufficiently TO provide material
necessary for an army of one million
men.
A change planned by the war de-
partment in the supply bill is to
shorten the time for accumulation Of
reserve materials for the army. The
present bill provides for their pur-
chase over period of from four to
five years and the department Is plan
ming to ask that funds for this pur-
pose be made Immediately available
DIVIDE HUGE NATIONAL LOAN