New Britain herald., 1917-04-05
LACK 0F OFFICERS
 ID TRAIN AN ARMY
Serious Shortage Proved at Hear
 ing on Military Affairs

Washington, April 5.-A serious shortage in officers to train the army of 5000 men asked for by the pres ident in his war message was disclosed during a debate in the house yester- day on\the Military academy appro- priation bill.
 That the War Department is de- pending to a large extent upon the graduates of military schools to act as training officers was asserted by Representative Julius Kahn, ranking republican of the military affairs conn., mittee. MT. Mann, the minority lead- CT, said 1t appeared the graduates of fresh-water military schools must be utilized to train the emergency army.
 Chairman Dent of the military af- fairs committee admitted that he did not know where a sufficient number of officers would be obtained, but thought they would be found by the war department. Secretary Baker he said, would come before the commit tee today to reveal the plans of the department.
 MT. Kahn spoke after conimuni- eating. through Representative Nc kenzte of Illinois, with the war de- pertinent. The war department, he said. estimated that 2,O0O officers on the detached list. from 1000 to D. GOO from tho various branches of the army, and 20,00O to 3O.0OO graduates of military schools would be available for training duties.
 MT. Kahn asserted amid applause from the floor and the galleries, that no American soldier should be sent to the European trenches prior to a years training in this country. It would be "butchery," he said to send untrained mon abroad. He feared, he saic that it would be impossible to find enough officers to train American sldiers in the details of modern trench warfare and was apparently pessimistic over "the unpreparedness of this country for a great emer- gency."
 Where is it intended to get men to train the army of 500,0OO spoken of by the president and the added in crements in the regular service and militia?" asked MT. Mann. We are supposed to raise an army of 500,0OO, and then an additional 50O.OOO."
 DcHt IS OpAlu1StlC.
 "I want to say very frankly" said Chairman Dent, that I do not know at the present time where we could get sufficient number of officers to train a half ymillion men, but after the national defense law of last year has had the benefit of fair trial and opportunity I think the time will come when we can get them.
 af member of the military affairs com am aware, no military member of the committee has been taken into the confidence of the war department in any preliminary discussion of what may be demanded in the way of legis- lation or given any hint or suggestion of what the policy of the department will be in the application of any law now on the books
 Baker wanted to appear before the full military affairs committee to dis cuss plans of the department. Rep resentative Kahn said he had asked MT. Mckenzie, another member of the committee, to telephone to the war de- partment it's plans. When MT. Me- hSll1lc IetuIucO u LIle CI1dHlUeT, NIT. Kahn said:
 The war department replied that it has 2,O00 men on the detached list of officers. They have 1000 to 2,O00 more who are available from the vari- ous branches of the army-commis- stoned officers. They have from 2O,- 900 to 30,O0O men in the various col leges of the country under military -graduates-who they say are probably not the best material for training recruits, but they will do in an emergency. So they figure that in all we have something like 35,0O0 men who could be put to work train ing an army"
 1.-TWO years ago." replied MT. Mann, II urged an army of half 8 million trained men, one-half in the regular army and one-half in the volunteer so that we might have them trained for not been in favor of-men trained sufficiently at least to train other men.
 "Now what is the suggestion today As to the 3O,OOO more or less of men who have graduated from so-called military schools, some very good and some very poor schools, most of them have been out of college for 8 num- ber of years or are engaged in some other occupation. We have no string on them; they were not educated al our expense. It is idle talk to say that you can gather that number of men together now to train recruits and it is equally idle to say they are competent to give good training. And that Is only in the war. There is probably no list of them. Here we are apparently on the verge of rais- ing an army and nobody knows how it is to be done. Nobody has pro- posed a method by which it can be done so that men are trained to take care of themselves if they go into an