Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-02-14
ARGENTINE ARMY PLAN
CRITICIZED BY MASSES
Service Is Nominally Universal,
but People Complain Rich
Are Exempted
MOVES TO CHANGE FAIL
Military Party So Far Has Defeated
Reform-Some Wax Rich,
on System
By CHARLES p. STEWART
Special Cable service Of the United Press and
Evening Ledger.

Evening Ledger.
BUENoS AIRES, Feb IA. - Argentina
has an excellent little army, well-officered.
well-trained. well-equipped. well-clothed
well-fed, wel-sheltered and generally we'll
treated. But the system by which IT'S ranks
are filed Is savagely criticized by Argentina
The critics are the bulk of the population
who assert that the best people" do not
do military duty, or. II they do, do II as
officers.
IT is the national system of conscription
which comes in for popular denunciaton
Argentina. being Republic, the question
may be asked why the law Is not changed
II the majority do not like It. They are
trying to change It, Several bills have
been introduced and some strong speeches
made in Congress, but II is sow work. The
militarists are influential, II not numerous.
Besides, the ballot has not been genuinely
free in Argentina for very long.
"Caramba 20 chorused the Argentine
masses when told that the United States
thinks Of adopting system of compulsory
military training modelled after their own
"Caramba" is an elastic Spanish expression
which, in this case, meant approximately,
We'll, what do you think of that
SUBJECT OF SCANDAL
The Argentine system of compulsory mill
tary education was the subject OF nasty
scandal five or six years ago, when there
was a cleaning out of the medical stan,
whose duty 1t was to make physical ex-
amnations of young men Of military age.
The charge was that these examinations
had resulted In wholesale exemptions Of
rich or influential youths.
There has also been comment on the fact
that army officers who are in a position to
grant exemptions often grow rich rapidly.
Whatever the actual merits OF the case, the
Argentine public believes anyone can escape
military service II he has pull or money
enough. when you ask why the twenty
year-old son of some prominent man is not
in the army, the answer Is almost sure to
he, "Oh, his father fixed that" Naturally,
proof of crookedness generally is lacking,
but the masses have no confidence in the
honesty of the system.
Army officers receive an excellent mill
tary education at the Argentine West Point
the Colegio Militar, at San Martin. Pro-
vision IL also made by which common SOL
diers may rise TO commissions, though Wy
few succeed in doing so,
There Is a regular ARMY of volunteer pro-
| fessional soldiers, 5000 strong. Then come
| the conscripts. Their number depends upon
| is to keep the military establishment in
| cluding the regulars up to 1900 men.
oNE-YEAR SERVICE
Theoretically every male Argentine IS
! n soldier from twenty to forty-hve. In
| practice the period of service is one year
| Afterward there is no further training
| though the law provides for a little.
There are always many more elgibles
| than there are army vacancies. Numbers
| are drawn to determine who must sand who
| need not serve. Those who draw the high
| est numbers go into the navy, where the
| period Of service is two years. As the