Evening star., 1918-07-29
GERMANY TO FACE
ANOVERWHE[M|NG
j. S. ARMY FORCE
President and Advisers at
Work on Mammoth Mill
tary Program.
MORE PORTS OF ENTRY
PROVIDED IN FRANCE
Success Experienced in Assembling
and Transporting Troops
Promises Victory.
BY DAVID LAwRNCE.

AASASSS sASSS@J
BY DAVID LAwRNCE.
Copyright, 1915. By the New York Evening
Post Company
Germany's amazement at the rapid
transport Of the American Army and
its fighting strength on the western
front is going to grow from now on as
the military program of the United
States-the program that is designed
to shorten the war-takes final shape.
Congress is away unfortunately. or
start could be made this week on con-
s1deration of the proposals which
President Wilson. Secretary Baker and
Provost Marshal crowder will have
evolved in few days.
What the United States government
has decided to do is to put into effect
the largest military program that can
be achieved by US now with our increas-
ing tonnage and our experience of
year in raising armies in the millions
and shipping them across submarine
INFESTED ocean. Figures cannot YET be
revealed, but the general trend of the
future can. however, be described.
iaugnt Dy Emergencies.
IN the first place, emergencies on
ne western front in March of this
year taught the allies what they
could do about transporting troops, If
they really tried. We are, therefore,
sending men across the ocean at an
average rate of 250.oO0 men a month
with gradual increases every month.
We know just what we can do with
fIah nd af,,r
around" in France at the ports and
harbors assigned to the United States.
Secretary Baker tells me we have
been given more ports of entry and
that our railroad facilities back of the
front are steadily growing better;
more locomotives. cars and rails have
been shipped over recently and the
trackage greatly increased.
The interesting thing is that the
size of the Army we are going to
think. will be enough to meet the
Needs Of the situation on the western
front thfs year and next, but the
very largest force that it is humanity
possible to raise.
No Halfway Measures.
The maximum effort. Mr.. Baker be-
1ieves, will beat Germany, and there
fore when Congress reconvenes it
will find itself confronted with the
very highest figures in troops that
can be transported and supplied on
the other side. No halfway measures
are contemplated, no grudging con-
trioution. but an overwhelming num-
ber of men to impress Germany with
what is coming. and then to use those
men in making the necessary physical
impression to gain victory.
To get more men it is going to be
necessary to extend the present age
limits. That has already been de-
cided. Congress must ratify the de-
cision of the War Department. but
limits will be extended both below
twenty-one and above thirty-one.
Mathematical Question.
How far above and below the War
Department must go is not a senti-
mental question, but mathematical
one, dependent upon what man power
It IL desired to get in order to win
tho war expeditiousTS. My own opin-
ION Ia that the limits will be eighteen
to forfy-f1ve years Of age, but that
is purely an individual estimate based
upon the proportions Of men needed
for the execution Of the war job ahead
Of Us.
Below twenty-one there will be un-
questionably a system of universal
training for the duration of the war,
80 that there will be as little inter,
colleges. in both professional and vo-
cational education. In other words,
tho government would try to keep the
processes of education going while it
had inducted everybody above the age
of eighteen, and then, as the require
ments of the situation had to be met,
there would be calls for the younger
troops as they reach the ages Of nine
teen or twenty.
Same Classification system.
Above the age of thirty-one there
physically fit to tight: 1t must be
remembered, incidentally. that the
government is going to apply above
the age Of thirty-one the same sys-
for the men now registered. Un.
married men without dependents will
be put IN class and at the foot Of the
list: married men without dependent in
class 2. and married men with de-
pendent children In class and SO on.
Secretary Baker is determined that
there shall be no disturbance of
classes two. three, four or five among
tho present registrants between the
age Of twenty-one and thirty-one.
limits are being changed. for 1t would
be economically unwise to disturb the
families of men between the ages of
twenty-one and thirty-one as long
as there were unmarried men ABOVE
and below thirty-one who are fit to
fight. OF course, II the emergency
ever arose, the government would
have to reach into class two. but
there win be enough man power for
fully three to i've years of war with
out doing that. SO that the extension
Of age limits makes the men of all
ages in this country who are married
or have dependents practically GER
tain not to be called, but the work
OF tight order will be applied just
the samo to men above thirty-one, as
well as below 1t. Those in deferred
classes will have to engage in useful
occupations which ought to help the
labor situation, and particularly ship
building.
Federal Plans Extensive.
The governments plans are the
most extensive that It has ever con-
sidered heretofore. The local boards
throughout the country are going to
be given new burdens. but they must
feel. as must the men who are to be
called. that it is the final blow which
America Is preparing. the blow that is
going to bring victory in short time
Tho American point of view is that
few thousand men into the line ac-
eord1ng as the Germans change the
gftAAtton On the western front, but to
fhko the initiative and hammer away
With tho greatest number Of man the
! all1eg ean put Sogethsr on the line. and
Iconttnued On Fourteenth Page.9
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