The Green Forest tribune., 1917-10-26
AMERICAS ARMY
 MUST BE MODERN
THAT IS REASON WHY SOME STATE REGIMENTS WILL
 LOSE IDENTITY.
PROTESTS MUST BE IGNORED
Consolidation Is Necessary to Conform to System of Our AIlies-oficers Unless Unfit, Will Not Be Reduced In Rank
By EDWARD B. CLARK.

By EDWARD B. CLARK.
 Washington.-The secretary of war, and with him the military officers of his department. are deSirouS that mem bers of National Guard organizations should understand that it is nothing but the necessities of military case which have compelled the authorities to order consolidation of some of the state regiments which thereby neces- sarily largely must lose their identity.
 TelegrHms and letters of protest against the consolidation of different state regiments into one still are pour. ing into the department, and the civil ian officials and the army officers un- questionably are perturbed because of the attitude of officers and men of some of the Guard organizations to- ward consolidation.
 It appears that rather than to lose its identity as the Fighting Fiftieth, or the Keoluk Blues, or the Kalamazoo Cracks, some of the Guard regiments would prefer that military wisdom he fOregone and that they be allowed to go into the fight against the Germans in their old formations, which would mean to enter the battle in manner not approved by students of modern warfare.
 1 have been asked personally by one of the highest military officials in the United States to write an explanation of why those consultations of regi- ments are necessary, and why it is that some officers, temporarily at least. must lose their positions of first com mand.
 Pershing Urged the Change.
 It was General Pershing who urged on the American military authorities the necessity of having the regimenial formations correspond to those of the French and British now actually on the fighting line. Three years of trench work and such open field work as there has been have proved that complete change in the regimental formations must be made. The war department. wishing to do what 1t can to insure so far as is possible quick victory, has no alternative but to change the old or ganization plan.
 Under the new rule regiment must contain about 3,600 men. This makes 1t absolutely necessary that some Guard regiments shall be combined to make new regiment. The whole sys- tem of organization has undergone a change. The necessity of machine gun troops has made 1t imperative that some regiments shall be split into smaller units for rattle fire" gun for nations. The war department realizes that in q measure this splitting of regi- mentS is to the men like the breaking up of home ties, but war Is on and the war must be fought along modern lines and therefore the changes absolutely are necessary.
 There is one colonel to q regiment. When two existing regiments are com bined into one it means that the junior colonel must be displaced from com mand, or if 1t shall be deemed wise from the military sense to put the jun for in chief command. the senior feels that he had been sighted.
 No Officer to Lose Ills Rank.
 If can be said, however, that no col onel. unless found unfit, will lose his rank. He will be attached to a regi- ment ready to take command in case the actual commander Is incapacitated or transferred. In other words, the ad- ditional colonel will in sense be lieutenant colonel, although keeping the colonel's rank. The lieutenant col onel of an outfit always has been sort Of supernumerary.
 Other officers than the colonels will be affected. but every man who is fit for the service will stay in 1t at the rank which he holds. It will be no news probably to most of the officers of the army, regulars or National Guardsmen, that if they prove their unfitness to command men In the pres ent crisis-out they will go.
 New Anesthetic Being Tested.
 Washington officials, particularly those of the medical department, and presumably all persons who have heard or read anything on the subject, are interested in an arti- cle written by Edgar Ansel Mowrer which appears in Golfers Weekly of September 9. It gives in detail as- founding accounts of the pain-relieving work which it Is claimed an anesthetic called nikalgin, the discovery of n lay man, Gordon Edwards, has accom- plished In the war hospitals of Eng land and France.
 If this discovery will do what 1t is claimed 1t will do, there is reason enough for the interest in 1t which has been aroused. It has been my attempt to find out something about nikalgin and it's possible or probable use as a local anesthetic by the medical depart ment of the United States government.
 Medical Science Is Alert.
 There are in the United States medi- cal service several of the foremost phy- sicians of the world. It is neither in accordance with the ethics of the profession nor with the ethics of cen sorship, if one may so speak, for the doctors to discuss prior to thorough investigation the merits of new ma terial which is claiming recognition. It
 Uses of the Howitzer.
 HOwitzer is the name given to par ticular piece of ordnance which is of