The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1918-07-18
MACHINE Gun
COMPANY GROWING

udSIllllC gun company, hi'b IN D
ment, National Guard of Oklaho-
ma, and the company may be mus
tered Saturday. More Ardmore men
are required at once. Several nearby
towns have furnished a number OF
recruits and Ardmore young men
should enroll at once and bring the
company to its proper strength.
Why Young Men Should Enlist
A member of the company has Of
fered the following arguments for
enlistment in the machine gun com
pany:
At the most conservative estimate,
the Ardmore representation IN
France and the training camps must
be doubled, probably trebled. Class
one is practically exhausted. In
fact men in the other classes are be-
ing showed up in class one and sent
on. Nearly every boy who is under
twenty-one and can get by the
physical requirements is in the navy.
Where are these men to come
from? There is but one answer;
The new registrants, the deferred
claSsihcations, and by raising the
draft age. Congress postponed rais-
ing the draft age at the request OF
the war department, made because
it was not Immediately necessary
and this will be one Of the import
ant things to come up before con
gress in September. From France
our own General Hoffman writes
urging that the draft age he raised
to As. He says that we should have
from three to five million men in
France and that many more in tram
ing. According to General Hoffman
we are up against stiff PROPOSE
ton.
The percentage of men in the
draft age who are physically unit
for military service is amazingly
high. And this is even more true
OF those who are above the present
draft age. No one can have any
conception Of the real situation who
has not been active in raising one
or more national guard companies.
These additional millions must
come from the physically fit in the
present deferred classitcations and
from those above the present limit
who are physically qualified. The
draft age will be raised and the man
in a deferred classification who gets
by can count himself lucky IN that
respect, even though he must real
ize that FIVE or ten years from now
the men of this country Will be di-
vided into two claSseS-those VINO
went and those who stayed at home.
Every Ardmore man who has had
anv military experience IS interested
in seeing every Ardmore man who
goes to the colors either as volun-
teer or as selected man do the
verv best for himself For this rea-
son he is strong for the national
guard. The selected men go to the
training camps by the tralnload
They all look alike to the officers
who take them in charge on their
arrival. The man who can show a
national guard discharge and can
back it up by demonstration can
easily have his chevrons by the time |
he gets his uniform. The man who !
has not had the national guard |
training is one of hundreds Just like |
himself and only time hard work
and natural ability will get him past
the rank of private. The man with
the national guard training takes
hold where he left off. If his dis
charge shows him a corporal or
sergeant in the national guard, the
chances are that he will never be
less. 1t is a high honor to wear
the uniform OF a private III the l.
5. army: but the chevronS OF a non
commissioned officer are to be high
ly desired. not merely for the added
responsibilities and personal priv
leges they embody, but ior the ad-
ditional pay as well.
No Ardmore young man headed
for the national army can blame
anyone but himself II he goes with
out this training. Ardmore has an
infantry company, already well
drilled in the close order drill and go
ing good. True. 1t has start and
most Of its non-commissioned OF
fcers selected. but the machine gun
has all this TO do. Prac-
tically half OF its men are non-com-
Officers. They must be
its very best men and nothing but
the test OF time will show who they
are to be. Ardmore IS fortunate IN
having giard organizations OF two
different branches OF the service.
ANY young man has his choice OF
the two organizations. II he Is pa
triotically inclined where he can
get this training for several months
al home. without being out a cent
Or losing minutes time from his
work. Every Young man who IS
qualified and IS not yet IN
class one owes il 10 himself to en-
list in one OF these companies, and
the machine gun company needs
lew more Ardmore men now.
The location Of the machine gun
herealso means armory
-ent from the state for two organi-
,ations. For this reason all Ard
more should be behind the organi-
.ation of this company.
The machine gun company IS
Ugh class organization, as is indi-
.ated by the percentage of commits