The Green Forest tribune., 1917-11-02

i and uuGuCStignab!E there aiWaES will he loyalty to the person Who repre- sents the fact, so long as loyalty Is possible. Ii is the. old army and nays l idea again of standing by the com manding general in the field or the nd miral on the bridge.
 There is evident not only in the cap ital bur throughout the country m ardent desire on the part of the bulk Of the people to he just as loyal to the soldiers and sailors who are to do dan corous work for the flag as they are or try to be to the civilian chief who, under our constitution, commands them. The war department and the navy departnent in Washington feel i this condition instantly. There ore l thousand channels of communica- lion between the great departments of | government and the masses of the peo- l pie and change of sentiment one way or another on the part of the country i instantly is detected in headquarters i in Washington.
 The chiefs of the army express themselves freely as being pleased and perhaps a little bit surprised at the extraordinary enthusiasm of most of the American people for the member ship of the new National army, the se leeted service men drawn to the col ors through the draft system.
 There was a sort of q fear in army circles that the men who did not vol unteer but who entered through the process of drawing would not find the place in the hearts of the American people that the volunteers always have found. The truth is that today the officials seem to think that there is. if possible a little warmer feeling to- ward the young fellows from civil life who have been plunged into absolute ly new conditions of living, then there is for either the National GuardSmen or the regulars. This may be only in the seeming instead of in reality, but that the new National army has en- gagged the affections of the people, army men say there can be no doubt.
 Third Officers Training Camp.
 Enlisted men of the regular army and the National Guard and selective service men of the National army are to be given an opportunity this winter to earn commissions by undergoing .n- struction at another officers training camp, which the government has de- cided to establish early in January.
 It was not many years ago that some high-ranking army officers rec commended that the course at West Point be extended one year, because they held that four years instruction, even at a school as rigid in its disci- pline and teaching as the military academy was not enough in which to train an officer for the army.
 l. may be that as a result of the experience of this war the minds of some of the army officers will be changed concerning the time necessary to make men fit for commissions. Of course it is recognized that the neces- sites of the case have made it urgent that officers should be trained quickly, but from the reports which come 10 the war department from all over the country it appears that the young men who have been commissioned after three months at school in the field are something more than fairly fit to eX- ercise junior commands.
 Already the commanding general of each regular army, National Guard and National army division has told the enlisted men of his command that the school for officers is to be opened and that every noncommissioned off cer and private can apply for admis- sion II is estimated that 10 per cent of the enlisted strength of the various organizations will be selected for eN- animation for entrance to the camps and that from this 10 per cent a little less than per cent will he chosen for actual service at the schools of in- struction.
 Only the Best to Be Taken.
 It is not believed, however, that fully 10 per cent of all the organiza. tions will apply for permission to un- deftake the training. If the entire number should apply and should be successful in the course, the army probably would be overtopDed with of ficers. Therefore it is that only 9 per cent, comprising the most likely per. eentage of the 10 per cent, will be per mitted to enter the camps.
 The understanding is that at the training camps the course will be con ducted along semicompetitive lines. Not all the men who enter, of course, can graduate, but they will lose noth. ing by the educational experience, for those who do not get commissions probably will be given noncommis- stoned rank with the increase of pay which such rank commands.
 Out of the colleges and military schools of the country 2,500 young men are to be taken into the officers train ing camps. They will drill and study side by side with the men from the ranks of the three services. It is ap- parently the intention of Uncle Sam to have enough men to officer an army much larger than that which at the present day is under orders.
 The parents and the friends of many young men who have been selected for service and have entered the National army feared that promotion would be denied even the deserving ones In the ranks of those chosen by draft. The war department knew that the feeling existed in the country that the men who volunteered for the regulars or the National Guard would be much more certain of promotion than the men who entered the service through the draft.