New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-04-06

only $176 a year to maintain, and in
stead of having for the defense of your
country a regular army alone, with q
somewhat indefinite National Guard
as under present law, regular army
alone of 100000 men, as provided IN the
House bill, to cost S54O,OOO,000, you
Will have great citizen army. You
will have great citizens reserve
army of 100000 men for the same
money.
II think possibly if you had an army
OF Izo.0oo regulars the cost per man
would be a little higher than in ar
army of 100000 regulars, because the
personnel of the overhead cannot be
reduced proportionally as you reduce
the enlisted strength"
Answers Hitchcocks Query
"The Senator's reports recommend
an army Of 2SO. 900 men now" said Sen
ator Hitchcock, Subject to reductions
until it reaches 100000. Can the chair
man explain why an army of 100000
would not be sufficient now?"
"The answer would involve a review
of world conditions" said Mr.. Wads-
worth zone mans Judgment is about
as good as another's. | would not care
to be responsible for bill which would
reduce the available military force of
the United States-I do not care
whether you call it regulars or volun-
teers or National Guard--below the
figure 100000, or certainly below the
figure $4,000, at this moment of his
tory. 1t is all we have now"
The Senator has stated" persisted
Mr. Hitchcock, that that reserve Of
citizen soldiers would enable us to get
along with an army of 100000 six years
from now. If it would six years from
now, why can we not get along with an
army of 100000 now, when we have al
ready got young men trained ~
But" replied Mr.. Wadsworth, chose
young men are not mem ers of the re-
serve army now; they are not organized
and they are not equipped. The ques-
zion is, is it fair to ask these men. who
either volunteered, or went cheerfully
under the draft, to continue being 70
sponsiblc for the defense of the United
States indefinitely? 1t seems to me that
their SUCCESSORS in age should com
monce to, assume little bit of that re-
spcnsibility, and that is the purpose Of
this bill, in part.
ut is to establish a system which
shall automatically provide the country
with an adequate defense at all times
and against any emergency. | do not
think it is fair to say that, because we
have 100000 or 100000 men who
have just gone through terrific war
and have now returned to civil pursuits,
we need do nothing about estab-
fishing citizen army. They have
done their share, and there are men of
eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twcnty-one
and twenty-five years old who viii be
available, and Increasingly available.
from now on to act as their sue
cessors; and surely there is no more
honorable undertaking for young man
of to-day than to act as the successor
of the young men who went out after
we declared war against Germany.
THE provisions of the bill bring
this state Of affairs about: A young
man upon reaching the age Of eighteen
becomes, under the provisions of the
bill, liable to military training. He
may take that training in either one
Of the three following years, his nine-
,eenth, twentieth or twenty first.
"The period of training is four
months. Upon the completion of his
training the young man goes back to
his home, resumes his civilian pursuits.
but is assigned to reserve unit
organized in the locality of his resi-
Gence. he is a reservist and remains
reservist for five years, including the
four months of his training During
that five years he may be called upon
by the government to attend two
maneuver periods. not to exceed two
weeks each. so that during that period
of his term as rescrvist his liability
for training in maneuvers cannot eX-
coed an aggregate of one month, which,
added to the four months of his in
tcnsvc training, gives him five months
training. and that is all.
"While he is a member of that re-
ecrvc unit he is liable. in the event
that Congress declares war, to go to
the front with his unit