The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1917-04-24
VOLUNTEER SYSTEM is
ASSAILED IN SENATE.

WASHINGTON, April 23.-The VOL
unteer system was assailed as uncer-
tain and inadequate and the selective
draft was declared to be in recogni-
ton of just principles in the majority
report written by Chairman Chamber
lain, of the Military Committee, and
submitted to the Senate on the Ad-
ministration bill.
This is no time to tolerate uncer-
tainty in the raising and the mainten-
arce of the large numbers of men
which the present emergency is likely
to require, nor uncertainty in the meth
eds to be adopted for the establish.
ment Of an adequate, efficient military
service" says the report. "The bill
makes certain the raising and main
tenance of the required forces with the
utmost expedition.
ct establishes the principle that all
transferring citizens owe to the nation
the duty of defending it. 1t selects
only those who by reason of their age
and physical capacity are the best fit
ted to receive the training and with
stand the actual hardship of cam.
paign, and who happily can be taken
with least disturbance of normal eco
Ionic and industrial conditions"
After calling attention to the fact
that the selective draft has been rec
ognized by "a world in arms" as the
"only adequate and effectuaP' method
of raising an army, the report says the
bill provides thorough means of re-
cruiting the regular army and the ma
tional guard for absorbing more than
1000 volunteers.
THUS happily" it says, "the bill
while establishing and placing the ma
tional dependence upon the almost uni
versally approved system Of draft, at
the same time accommodates itself to
such volunteer spirit as exists and is
available in the early days of the war"
II says the opportunity for volunteer
army is greater than ever before offer
ed in one piece Of legislation.
"The volunteer method has never
proved adequate and effectual for ma
tional needs, and will prove far less so
now" the report says. History shows
that, much to our detriment, we have
begun our wars with this inadequate
and Intellectual method, and have
brought them to a successful conclu
sion only by resort to a system basel
on proper principles.
"The volunteer method failed this
nation in the Revolution, and 1t was
only the material aid of France that
gave us our independence. 1t failed
US in the War of 1912, and had it not
been for drastic draft laws and the
diversion created by the Napoleonic
war we could not even have concluded
such peace as we did.
at failed the Confederacy in the
Civil War, and that Government, to its
advantage, was quicker to perceive
that fact than our own. 1t likewise
failed the Federal Government, and
volunteering, having practically cease |
by the end of 1862, was succeeded in
the following year by the first of the
draft acts 1t failed us in the Span
ish-American War, for the force then
called for was never obtained.
"To render military service to the
nation is higher duty than to contrib
ute to its financial support. Funda-
mentally considered, therefore, mill
citizens and is in no sense to be re-
garded as a voluntary offering"
After reviewing the American expo
IlcIlCc III IlIc SlNh w al, Tic lCpOi I
points out that England was compelled
in this war to turn to the draft sy5-
tenn in a struggle (which involves her
, life, as indeed, it may ours" 1t points
out her sacrifices of her little regular
army and says she was showed to the
brink of calamity" and chose the other
system Gin the face of an enemy who
does not thus impede himself to a sys-
tenn based on dominant national prin.
.ciple."
Only then, the report says, was an
effectual force raised in Great Britain
1T would be folly" it says, "for US
at this late day, in the light Of their
experience, to begin where they be-
gan"
4 "The volunteer system" the report
goes on, "does not accord with the
principles of our institutions. 1t is un-
democratic. 1t shifts the burden of ma
tional defense from the many, where
IL rightfully belongs, to the shoulders
of the few.
I'm a word, the volunteer system
which this measure Is designed to SUI
persede is undemocratic, unreliable,
extravagant, inefficient and, above all,
unsafe
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