The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-12-15
TAPS SOUNDED ID NORTHWESTERN
 IN UNITED STATES
Crowder Advocates Selec- tive Service System as Per manent Method of Rais-
 ing Future Armies
By Associated Press

New York, December 14.
 "Taps" to the volunteer sys-
 tenn of raising armies in war time by the United States was sounded here tonight by Maj. Gen. Enoch H. Crowder, pro vost marshal general, in anlad-
 dress to the retiring members
 of 1S9 New York draft boards.
 He earnestly advocated that the selective service system
 should become the permanent method of. raising American armies i'll the future.
 General Crowder declared the selec- tive service law had enabled the gov
 ernment to register ss,74o.ooo Aneri- cans, put into the held nearly S,oOO,- 900 fighters and to have in readiness to entrain on November II, when the ar mistice was signed, 2,000,000 more sol diers, all within a period of is months. 1 It would be a "cslamity," he said, fof the United States to revert to the vol unteer system. adding that the Ameri can conscripts had shown the valor, ag- Igressiveness and initiative of the most seasoned troops.
 What of the army you have raised?" asked General Crowder, referring to the drafted men who had been sent overseas
 There comes back from France the answer in no uncertain terms. These
 men you have sent to the colorS have proved themselves the equals in ag- gressive fighting and so1dierly bear ing of the veterans of France and Eng land"
 General Crowder's speech was an ex- position of the successful work of the selective service law which, he said. had responded smoothly and so well to our dual form of state government and
 national control that it would be ca
 lamitous if 1t should not become rec
 ognized part If our governmental sys-
 tenn for the raising Of armies in time !! !ofs war;
 l CONTRASTS DRAFT METHODS l The provost marshal general cons trasted the draft methods of the Unit ed States with those of England and showed how this country had protited by the mistakes made by the British, who, after three years of trial with the volunteer system and the disorgani- zation of industry. were obliged to adopt transcription.
 Pointing out that when Germany hurled her callenge to the democracies of the earth 1t became necessary for these democracies, for self-preservation, to organize their resources as she had done and make every man. a soldier active or reserve General Crowder de- clared this test had been met. He re- ferred to the efforts of Lord Kitchner | to raise an army and of the first gall | lant 100000 who were sent across the English channel. "knowing how to die, but little else in the awful carnage that
 awaited them.' He touched briefly upon
 the great drain upon the flow of Eng
 lands manhood and how, after the fac- tories, schools, offices, farms and mines had been depleted to the limitx the futility of trying to raise the required number of volunteers became apparent.
 "After 17 months of war had wit messed the disastrous sighting at Gal- llipoli, Mesopota and the Balkans and the deadlock on the western front" he declared, the new army of England
 was 1,700.000 men short of it's author ized strength" The volunteer system was now to be abandoned, he went on, after it had tnrottled the industrial life of the nation and undermined the whole economic structure"
 l VOLUNTEERING NECESSARY When the United States war depart