Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1920-03-20


 I. NATIONAL DEFENSE. It provides a democratic rather than a militaristic system of national de- fense and recognizes that it is as much the duty of citizen to prepare himself to defend his country and home in time of need as it is for him to vote, pay taxes or serve on jury; in other words, equality of political opportunity implies equality of politi- cal obligation, i. e., all to traiI in time of peace and if necessary serve in time of war.
 2. SMALL PROFESSIONAL AR MY. The Regular Army is to consist of 2S1,OOO men and 18,000 officers and the principle that the professional army is to be gradually reduced to the minimum necessary for overseas garrisons, home defense, training and administrative work, is wisely provid- ed for by the provision that the Reg ular Army will be reduced in the course of five years to 210,O0O men and 16,2OO officers.
 8. AN ORGANIZED CITIZEN ARMY. A citizen army system is ad- mirably provided for through univer- sal training for a period of four months or the youth of the country between eighteen and twenty-one with two months extra educational train ing for the illiterate and non-English speaking; the graduates of the train ing camps being organized into re- serve units in their home localities, and called out twice during the period of five years for maneuvers lasting two weeks.
 4. AMERICANIZATION. Its pro- visions for Americanization and for vocational training in trades that will be useful in time of peace and it's ed ucational features will go far to solve the pressing problems of Americani- zation, of illiteracy and of ignorance of our language and customs so strongly brought out by the statistics of the draft. .......-' @
 5. VETERANS AND WAR IRA OPTIONS. The traditions and exper- fence of the war will be perpetuated by the provision enabling the veterans to become nucleus of the citizen army by volunteering for short per iods to act as instructors and leaders, and preserving the designations of the units that served in the war.
 6. IMPROVEMENT OF HEALTH. The practical working of the bill will greatly reduce the rates of mortality, sickness and physical disability be- cause of the admirable provisions for the care of the health of the young men during the period of training and while members of the organized re- serves, and further because the bill abandons the old professional army system of taking only the fittest and provides for the development of de- fectives.
 '. RESERVE OFFICERS. The provisions for making all veterans eli gible to obtain commissions as re- serve officers in any grade including that of general officers or General staff officers and authorizing their appointment as Regular Officers in the grades held by them during the war is not only proper recognition of the service performed by these men but will secure at the outset and without further expense for training a large body of officers.
 8. EFFICIENCY OF REGULAR OFFICERS. The requirement that all Regular Officers shall be classified as (a) fit for promotion, (b) fit for their present grade, (c) fit for re- tirement will undoubtedly promote ef- ficiency.
 9. NATIONAL GUARD AND ITS DUTIES. The plan for recognizing the National Guard of the States into a National Guard of the United Stat es thereby becoming an integral part of the citizen army and to be compos- ed entirely of volunteers is sound in principle and recognizes the historic institution that was so long our only second line of defense. While ali young men are required to take train ing the elective principle and the vol unteer spirit is maintained through the provision that the Guard is to be recruited, up to its authorized strength, from the young man sub ject to training who elect td take their training in the Guard. That the officers of the Guard are to be Fed eral Reserve Officers recommended Gin time of peace) by the governors of the several states, preserves the Federal character of the Guard and assures efficiency, at the same time recognizing the localization of the or ganization of the Guard. Qualified militia officers are also properly rec oorn;1ad hu hainu made nlipihle for aD-