Evening star., 1919-09-28
Al. ToMPKINs McILvA1NE
!" Of the United States Train
v ing Camp Association. who

recently appeared before the
Senate committee seeking sugges-
tions for a military policy. attacked
severely the provisions of the So
. called War Department bill, calling
1t Thoroughly unsound and likely
to perpetuate our worst mistakes"
This is the bill which would create
. standing army of $4,000 men,
. three-month course of universal
training without further organization
Of the men who have been trained
half trained" Mai. McIlvaine terms
It He points out the serious failure
: OF the bill to give to any percentage
of the civilian army further pro-
;gressive training (not compulsory to
qualify them as line officers for the
civilian organization. He asserts that
without training those leaders in ad-
vance, 1t is, from the military stand
point. largely a waste Of money and
time to train private soldiers.
He urges that, as result of not
organizing the graduates after their
leaving their first training camps. no
adequate force would be available in
event OF a great emergency, since the
standing army, even If recruited to
its proposed strength. would be in
adequate. It would be necessary to
break 1t to pieces to organize and
train the citizen army. Thus the ma
tfon would be whore it was In 1917,
at the outbreak of the war, and
again a year would be wasted while
organization able to take the field
against an enemy.
Maj. McIlvaine showed the commit
tee that the three-month period Of
training would be of little military
value and would be worthless on the
educational and vocational side of the
young mans training. He summed up
his objections to the training fea-
lures Of the bill as follows: The Pc
, fiod Of training Is too short; the
young men trained are not subse-
Quently organized territorially into q
reserve; no provision Is made for the
education Of citizens as officers for
the citizen army. and no citizens can
be called to the colors or organized
anto units until a formal declaration
OF war has been made. and not even
then except through the machinery
ef the draft law"
He submits that under the plan Of
3ered by the association q reserve
viii be created which. with suitable
omcers, can be mobilized at short no
tice when authorised by Congress.
Under the associations plan all
grades in the reserve army would be
open to- and all promotions would be
from the ranks after the progressive.
training necessary to qualify the
young men for the several advances.
In this manner the citizen army
would be ofi1cered by men who had
served in the ranks and knew from
practical experience the point Of view
Of the citizen-soldier, which, in the
Judgment Of many military men, fs .
matter Of no small Importance.
The expense of organizing and
maintaining such an army. Mai Nell
yaine dxed at less than half the
amount estimated for the support Of
me army proposed in the pending
0mcers and civilians are telling con-
Bressional committees 80 many ways
to organize
06itary Policies the War De-
Appear Criss-cross. 20 pa.smsns eonsne+ tns tho
military AFFAIRS Of the nation that the
Way Of the iegislator seems to be
Through q maye.. All agree that Con-
gress should provide an army that
Vim serve to garrison the posts within
and without the United States. consti-
tuts 4n emcient nolice force to main
tain oruer Within tho national house
hold and serve asa training force un-
Aer any, echeme of military training
Which Cpngress may adopt -Tt.S .AS3E
1ewsTer: from so.sso 'S to $4,000. 1900 s1ss Con.
Greasmen have introduced three bills
and two more are threatened. They
Gre % different In their policies that.
each may be said to occupy one Of the
points Of dye-nnEered star.
simes called the Kahn-yVadsworth bill.
- the one which has been most dis
eussed. That II the one providing for
the $4,000 men. . :three-month train
ING for youths In their nineteenth year
without their further training or orr
9anisation. and for the reorganiza-
= general star. Gen. March says the
8nl - all right and should be passed.
Ut the Secretary Of War says he IL of
0Den mind and wants to hear Gen.
Horshing before he announces his nnal
aectsion- Gen: March. who presum-
ally speaks for the administration.
uays that the country must have an
army Of moro than half q million men.
With reservesr adding another 700, 600;
but MAJ. Gen. Billiard and Maj. Gen.
3feAndreWs tell the committees that
&asrison. police and training purposes,
not more than 100000 are needed for
eo5ectS the administration may have
IN mind.
Representative Dent In a bill intro
duced by him advocates q return to
the National Guard A. Z means Of
vision for training men or officers.
He 10 emphatic for bureau system
With which the general stan must not
interfere. In this last contention
several Of the bureau chiefs have
Joined with all the force they can
All the stan and general officers that
the only way to run an army in war
times and conditions is to turn IT
over to the general staf. That 10
what France and Germany had done
before the war and what America and
war. Gen. March and other military
men have assured Congress that the
bureau system while it lasted after
war was begun was . dismal failure;
and the bureau chiefs say that it was
the fault OF q weak stan and an in
say that the Offices Of purchase. stor-
age and trafic (Which did operate
successfully for Army supply should
be abolished because they interfere
with functions that were formerly in
the bureaus. Stan officers say that
HlCuOuI . anu - ~ C0pSA NAoS thS
efforts Of the bureaus and other op-
Grating divisions there can be no CO.
ordination between them In case of
another emergency.
The Secretary Of War and the chief
Of stan say that the Motor Trans
port Corps should be an independent
division. and everybody else except
its chief has said that 1t ought to be
- branch of Army transportation.
Come say that aviation should be
made a separate branch OF the serv-
1ce-like the cavalry or infantry
and othera Rav that such q course