Arizona republican., 1917-09-23
Amer1ca,S FirSt Real National Arnuy
 Mastering F0y The World C0M3lct
(By c. w. Gilbert, in New York
 Tribune)

WASHINGTON-Th has just begun the movement of our new na- tiOnal army into camp In a few days one third of it will gather i'll the cantonments, the wooden cities that have sprung up all over the country for its accommodation. In q fortnight or whereabouts anothe. thiId will take the trains, as this third is doing, and be rushed to the training grounds. Two weeks later, or as soon as the railroads can carry them without conflict with the needs of the industries on which the life of modern army depends, the rest of the first choice of the selective draft will be in uniform learning the diff cult art of present day warfare
 When all are gathered together there will be 1,250,000 men in arms, a larger force than ever before were in the field for this republic. The Rev olutionary war was fought by only 250,000 men, taking the total for the whole conflict. The War of 1872 em- ployed a total of 1000 men, anu the Civil war a total of 2,SOO,OOO union men, of whom it is certain that million were never in arms at once. And behind this 1,250,000 stand hundreds of thousands, waiting to be called as soon as the problem of finding or building ships to trans port them to the field of battle is solved
 New Army Stands for Wider National
 Concept
 Of this greatest army in the na- tions history one-half is composed of our traditional forces, the little regular army, which stood for the al IAn the militia, which represented the separatist or state tendency in Americas national life They are preserved for their past But the other half the half that will grow until these two earlier elements are lost In it. Is the new national army raised upon new principle, for a purpose new in the history of this democracy, and standing for a new conception of American nationality that will never wholly die from the consciousness of this people.
 Six months ago this was the least military country in the world And today it is the reliance of democratic Europe for victory over the forces of autocracy, so much so that Lloyd George speaks of it as the nation which, never having known defeat, win win this war.
 And in that transfiguration the biggest single act of the national im- agination and will was the creation of the new national army. We might be said never to have had a national army before, outside of small pro- fessional army
 The Revolutionary war was fought by localities, which rose in arms when threatened. When the invader was repelled the army, farmers the day before, became farmers again.
 Tn Civil war was a war of state< against states. It was appropriate that the list New York should figf> the 4th Virginia. When the very question of nationality is at stake there IS no room for a national army
 when this war came the country rejecting all counsels of timidity, ere ated a national army on the prin- eiple that the nation should say, as of right, who should fight and who should stay at home, and became in doing it more of a nation than ever before in its history
 Solution of Shipping Problem Remains
 All the machinery has worked to- gether for the production and equ1p- ment of this army with no more than the ships that are humanly to be expected when any vast move ment involving more than a million men is under way. We shall be a couple of weeks behind the schedule in getting these men into camp. A few thousand caps or shoes may be wanting. Some men or some bundles of clothing may be sent to the wrong cantonments. Beyond this, nothing untoward is expected by the war de- partment.
 The problem of getting the new army to France remains unsolved. There are fifteen divisions of the national guard ahead of it in fitness and experience. And at present we can only move men in the ships that are available. The need to get the men over may lead to the finding of