The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-05-05
ANTHONY'S VIEWS
Favors Both Volunteer and
Universal Training Systems.
Quotes Colonel Roosevelt on
American Army to France.

! D. r. Anthony. member of congress
from the First Kansas district, has
outlined, in a communication to the
State Journal, his views on the volun-
teer and selective draft plans for rails
ing an army. He says:
1T will require but a short time
after the passage of the selective con-
scription bill by congress to demon
strate that a tremendous military
blunder has been committed by the
war department in relying solely upon
the CONSUMPTION processes therein pre-
scribed for raising our first army OF
a half million man for foreign service
AS contended in committee ana thru-
out the debate, many months of Valua-
bic time will be wasted by the govern
ment during which the machinery of
the enrolment and registration of the
consumption is being put to work be-
fore the first cOlScript is turned into
a training camp; and that during this
period of wasted time the finest volun-
teer army that ever served under the
, American flag could have been put
into training, trained and sent on its
way to the front IN France where it is
needed for active duty. The same
American spirit which is demanding
that Colonel Roosevelt be given an
opportunity to raise his division. of
volunteers for immediate service in
kindred spirit and possessing the same
ability for service. even tho in a hum
bier way, in other states in the Union
shall be afforded the same oppor-
| tunity.
Universal Service Liability.
There was no question that in the
| face of the great war which might
demand every available resource of
the nation, the people of this country
| demanded universal liability for mill
| tary service. The bill which passed
| congress is very far from a response
| to this demand and all the arguments
| which have been advanced by the
metropolitan newspapers and the de-
| Tense societies and the inspired prop
| uganda for universal military SER
vice in this emergency has failed to
| give the country what it demanded.
| The principle of the selective draft if
| followed out to its mfnutest detail and
as adept politicians will endeavor to
| interpret it will violate every prin-
| ciple of universal military service and
as a final result the conscripts obtain
| ed under it will most largely come
| from the ranks of the unattached and
unemployed young men of the country
| capable of offering the least resistance
| to the machinery of the conscriptive
| inquisition which will be set up in
every township of every county of
every state in the union. Instead of
encouraging Ine men OF the
| nation who with hearts full of pa
triotism are willing and anxious to
serve their country and to serve it now
these selective processes will have the
| effect of depressing the organization
of hundreds of thousands of good
American fighting men who are ready
| now to go into training for prompt
service on the battle lines in France.
For instance, if under 'selective'
CONSUMPTION the department decides
under pressure of Democratic senators
from southern states that the negroes
of the south shall be exempted from
consumption on the ground that their
labor is needed in the cotton fields. the
country will at once lose the oppor
tunity for securing those men of I'M
questioned fighting values.
The Labor Situation.
And again. If as claimed, Mr.. Com
pers and the labor union leaders will
succeed in convincing the department
that members of their organizations
must not be conscripted who are en-
gagged in manufacturing industries, the
sacrifice OF the universal principle of
service is again exemplified. AS a
matter of fact, no man of proper mill
tary age should be exempted on the
ground that his labor is necessary in
agriculture or the industries unless he
! is engaged in some occupation where
his skill and ability is vitality necessary
for the maintenance of our military
forces in the field.
Il feel that MY position on this leg
islation, that we should have provided
for the raising of the first half mil
lion men thru a call for volunteers. at
the same time giving the president the
power of the CONSUMPTION and at once
setting up it's machinery, to take ad-
vantage of the four to six months time
that otherwise would be wasted while
the machinery of the CONSUMPTION is
being installed and put in operation
by thus raising and training a magnif-
icent volunteer army of half a mil
lion good fighting Americans, even be-
fore the first conscript could be OBJ
tanned and turned in TO training