Perth Amboy evening news., 1917-05-15
AMERICAS HUGE
WAR CAhP soon
100000 Men With the Col
ors Within Next Nine Months
10000 Officers n Train
ing-ReguIar Army Bigger.


Washington, May 15.-At last steps
to put the United States under arms
irrespective of any shadowy volunteer
legions' are well under way.
At sixteen camps, covering the ma
ton from coast to coast, today begun
a. three and one half months siege OF
intensive training for the men picked
to lead the nations legions into battle.
Each camp has personnel OF from
$500 to $500. Out Of these military
hoppers the war. department believes
that by August viii be poured grist
Of sturdy military men. flt and capable
Of leading Americas first million
against the enemy.
With kilograms to the war depart
ment indicating that the camps are
getting under way with military pre-
cision and dispatch, the government
moved rapidly toward other plans.
President Wilson, following a confer
ence with Secretary Of War Baker, Is
sued an executive order authorizing
the raising Of 5000 men. In four In
crements, to bring the regular army to
war strength.
War department officials let 1t be
known that plans were under way to
bring the national guard into the fed
eral service Immediately and that
camps were now being selected as
training bases for the militia forces,
which will be increased to war footing.
War Department Plans.
Here is what the war department in-
tends to do:
FIrst-Put under training forthwith TO-.
900 men of tho regular army and national
guard as rapidly as the two organizations
can be brought to full strength.
Second.-Have the training OF these
troops well under way by Aug. 1. when
the first incremsnts Of the conscriptiys
army will begin to pour in; also there Will
be ready by this time the 10000 officers
whose training begins tomorrow They
will take over the leadership of the selec-
tive army.
To every recruiting Office In the
country orders have gone to begin the
big drive" so long planned by the war
department but which has been post
poned from day to day and week to
week as the slow moving congress con-
sidered the necessary legislation and
appropriated the necessary funds. ~
Straight conscription will be resorted
to In the case Of the national guard.
Each congress district In the country
will be forced to supply Its quota Of
800 to bring the guard to Its war
strength of approximately $50 900. The
difficulty is obtaining recruits for the
regular army leads to the view that 1t
Will be almost hopeless proposition to
obtain volunteers for the guard, and,
for this reason President Wilson Is ex-
pected to act soon Under the authority
conferred upon him by the national de-
Tense act to order the draft applied,
the men who must serve to be deter
mined by lot. 4eso sss !.
Plan For 100 Camps.
Plans of the war department today
called for more than hundred camps.
dotting the country from coast to coast,
within the next three months. 4o Sl.
Heavy work ON selecting sites for
these camps is now being done by the
southeastern department, under COM
mand OF Major General Leonard Wood.
recently transferred from Governors
island.
The greater part Of the regular army,
now largely concentrated along the
Mexican border, will be transferred to
othes parts Of the country, leaving the
patrol Of the Rio Grande to cavalry di-
visions OF both regulars and guardsmen.
The guardsmen, some 10000 of whom
are now either mobilized at their state
camps or engaged In police duties, VIII
soon be mustered into the federal serv-
Ice. "You are the United States army.
not the New York militia or the Oregon
militia or any state body" win be the
governments word to the guardsmen.
100000 Men Within Year.
The militia regiments will be mobi-
lized at their state camps, and then viii
be moved to federal camps, according
to the present plans. Under these plans
and others being worked out by the
Army War college, the first army Of ap-
approximately 100000 men will be
completely trained and ready for serv.
Ice In from nine months to year.
The new regiments authorized by the
president will be modified as follows:
Thirty eighth and Thirty-ninth infantry,
Syracuse. N. Y: Twelfth field artillery,
Fort Myer, Va: Forty-seventh to Fiftieth
dnciusive) infantry. Gettysburg National
ark; Nineteenth and Twentieth field ar
.ilery, Montauk Point. N. r.: Fffty-first
F'tfty-slxth 0nclusiye) infantry Chicka-
aausa park. Ga: Twenty-second and
rwenty-thfrd cavalry. Chickamauga, Ga. !:
Fortieth and Forty-first infantry. Fort
5helling. Mimi; Forty-second and Forty
third infantry, Fort Douglas Utah: Tenth
and Eleventh field artillery, Fort Riley,
Kan: Sixteenth and Seventeenth field ar
tiliery, Sparta, Wis: Thirteenth and Four
teenth field artillery, Fort Sill. Okla;
Fifty-seventh and Sixty-fourth infantry
and Eighteenth s.ad Twenty first fieId ar
tillery not yet designated; Forty-fourth
Infantry. Vancouver barracks, Wash; Six
ty-secopd and Sixty-third infantry, Pre-
sidio. San Francisco; TwentS-fourth and
Twenty-fifth cavalry. Fort d. A. Russell.
Wyo.