The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1919-08-15
SOLDIERS CONDEMN
(ONSCRIPTION BILL
Declare League of Nations a
Snare and a Fraud If Con-
scription is Necessary

This newspaper is advised that Wash
ington has not yet recovered from the
shock of the terrific, and wholly unex-
pected, attack upon the Chamberlain
Kahn conscription bill made by the Nat
ional Guard Association of the United
States which is holding it's annual con-
ference in the Seventy-first Regiment
Armory in New York City. Every mem
Der of the House and Senate Military
Affairs Committees received last week
telegram, stating definitely and explicitly
that the men who carried the day at
Chateau Thierry and the Argonne, are
in no mood to trifle with permanent
peace time training and conscript1on IN
America. That telegram, which was only
partially carried by the press assoclat-
ions. deserves rehearsal n full:
s'Four million veterans of the great
war are a sufficient nucleus for the or
ganization of any army which may be re-
uuired for some time to come.
:The American people will not tole-
rate the ruthless abandonment of pol
lev which created great civil army
| which answered the call. never finch
| ed in the fact of the severest fire, and
| whose record of achievement stands as
| q guarantee of it's ability to handle any
| situation which may confront it.
| sHThe Chamberlain-Kahn bill abolishes
| the citizen soldiery of the United States
| which public sentiment demands shall be
| the backbone of its military strength E;
and, at time when the people are strug-
l-gling under the burden of excessive tax
/ alton, creates at, enormous expense, the
machinery for the establishment in A
merica of that detestable Prussian sys-
tenn which is abhorrent to the American
people.
| .sThe League of Nations and the
Chamberlain Kahn bill can never go hand
in hand.
Either the League of Nations is
snare and delusion or there is no nee
essity for the passage of the Chamber
: lain Kahn bill.
= sHThe Chamberlain Kahn bill is the
swan song of the General Staff. Failing
t utterly in its efforts to secure necessary
p recruits for the regular army it now at
d ! tempts in time of peace under the guise
e of universal service bill to resort &c
t conscription, and to seize from theil
homes the youth of America for service
= in the regular army in the Philippines
v in Hawaii, in Porta Rico, in the Cana
= Zone and even in hussia should th'
= military dictator created by the provis
|. ions of this vicious bill determine tina
= the emergency demanded it.
sThe Chamberlain-Kahn bill destroy
: and replaces a stigma upon the citize1
q soldiery which bore the brunt of fight
r ing as shock troops, and creates cen
v tralized military oligarchy with danger
= Gus potentialities for political abuse, an
a the destruction of the freedom which
j.. vital to the existence of the country.
Wherefore the National Guard Asso
!. citation of the United States, through it
4 officers, executive and legislative comm
e tees in conference assembled, represent
e ing that great body of citizen soldier
y whose record of efficiency entities it t
=; the fullest measure of support, oppose
'. the passage of the Chamberlain-kah
Bill