New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-04-24
1900 in Rush
For Places in
Officers Corps
Offices Kept Open Until
Late at Night to Handle
Throngs
Few Will Be Paid
Salary Rule at Camps to APP
ply Only to Earliest APP
plicants

city yesterday for admission TO the
Plattsburg training camp for officers
in the new army. Offices Of the Mill
tary Training Camps Association Of the
United States. at 10 West Forty-fourth
Street were kept open until II o'clock
last night to handle the throng. The
camp opens on May 3.
Officers in charge believe that al
though the Plattsburg camp is to tram
only $500 men, those who are weeded
out in the process of selecting the best
stock will be held in reserve for train
ing in other camps later. About 10 per
cent Of the applicants passed the physi-
cal tests.
Major Halstead Dorey, head of the
training camps work in the Eastern
Department, adopted the plan yester-
day Of examining applicants at 10 West
Forty fourth Street as well as on Gov
errors Island
Captain Philip Mathews was placed
in charge Of the uptown office, and
Major Richard Derby, NJ. Il. C., SON
in-law Of Colonel Roosevelt, called in
as examining surgeon. All day con-
slant string Of applicants passed from
CAPTAIN Mathews's office 20 the Har-
ward Club. three DOORS away, where
they were examined physically.
Virtually all the applicants were col
lego mon. most of them more than
twenty-five years old for word has
gone forth from Washington that age
and experience are wanted IN the lrst
camps and that the many thousands
of Younger men who have been study
ing hard for three years will have their
chance later.
Disappointed at Ruling
The younger men are not taking
kindly 10 the ruling. which apparently
comes from the office of Secretary Ba-
ker. as they say it gives preference TO
older men who may have had much less
trimming.
DESPITE the financial restrictions i'm
posed upon candidates for the camps,
they fairly overwhelmed the informa-
ton offices both uptown and at Gov
errors Island. Six additional informa-
tion clerks had to be placed on duty
at the Forty-fourth Street office.
Major Dorey said it should be
stressed that candidates for commits
sions in the line and engineers only
could attend the camps, and that
would-be officers in the quartermaster
and signal corps and similar organiza-
tions were not eligible.
Though recent announce ments from
the adjutant generals Office in Wash
ington have led hundreds to believe
that all persons who attended the Of
fcers' training camps at Plattsburg
and other places would be paid, regular
army officers on Governors Island sad
Yesterday that the pay rule applied 70
only a small number of the 10000 to be
instructed for three months.
Sacrifice May Be in Vain
From $500 to $500 of the 10000 will
be paid-those who took their eNamlna-
tons before the camps plan was an
nounced and were either commissioned
or recommended for commissions by
the examining board. The other 26,OOO
or 27,000 will not be paid unless money
is made available BY President wilson
or Congress, despite the fact that many
have actually had as much experience
as those already commissioned.
Hundreds of these are men who have
lust returned from the border, where
they gained valuable experience in the
field, and thousands are men who have
been attending training camps and
classes for several years to prepare
themselves as officers. Several thou
sands actually had sent in applications
for examination, but all applications
are now being returned.
Not only do National Guard enlisted
men of high calibrc face this prospect,
provided they can get furloughs from
their organizations, but they are also
confronted by the fact that if, on COM
pleting the Plattsburg course, their
National Guard commanders refuse TO
discharge them so they may accept
commissions they will have made the
three months sacrifice in vain. A War
Department order alone can change
this.