The Ocala evening star., 1920-02-07
A RECRUITING STORY
By Thos HI. Davis, Formerly Second
Lieutenant, United States


In my opinion there are two reasons
why the\ recruiting campaign, which
will be pulled of this week, should be
a bowling success. Of course, we all
know that the war is over, even tho
we have to pay war tax on nearly,
everything we wear and on a lot of
things we eat, but at the same time
we must consider that no country, no
matter how small or how large and
powerful, is fully exempt from inter-
national troubles. and we can't cry
patriotic duty 'and service in pro-
lection of the country, as it was dur
ing the past conflict with Germany.
But at the same time consider the
fact that for the past several years
we have been having more or less
trouble with our southern neighbor
Mexico, and from the looks of things
now it is highly probable that before
many moons pass we will have troops
landing across the border.
Now to get back to the original
theme of this line of dope. as | said,
there are two reasons why the cam
paign should go over the top. In the
first place let me say that every able
bodied citizen of this country owes a
certain amount of service to the ma
ton and as a consequence should kick
in and do the share allotted to each and
every citizen. Makes no material
difference how this is done, just so it
is completed in manner beftting an
American. Service to the country
covers large area and would require
more time and paper than have at
hand to go into the finer points of
this argument, so to make this as
brief as possible let me say that a
man who will not serve his country is
not fit citizen and should be placed
on the next soviet ark.
To me the big reason why the cam
paign should add numbers to the rolls
of recruits is the fact that the army,
under the new plans of organization,
has introduced an important feature
which should appeal to the minds of
all, young and old, to the older. peo-
pie because it will show to them just
what is being done in the army, and
what methods are adopted for the
cultivation of the soldiers, physically,
mentally, morally and in many other
ways. To the young men because it
offers a place where the educational
facilities are unsurpassed.
This lecture, if ! may call it such,
is not to the men who have a real edu-
cation, men who can walk up to any
firm and emphatically state that they
want certain salary or they won't
consider any offer or contract. In
other words. men who have real
trade or profession; to this class of
men the army offers no inducements
other than chance to better prepare
themselves for the rough sides of the
journey through life. The men whom
the army are after are those of you
who have to work from hand to
mouth, as it were, and cannot depend
entirely on the fruits of a we'll learned
education to carry them to the pin
nable of success. men who have to
toll by their hands with a pick and
shovel are the ones the army is more
interested in and this is cited by the
fact that the special inducements are
offered men of this type In the first
place, as well as the second, a mar
who has no education is a detrimenr
both to himself and his country anc
the sooner he gets busy and removes
these obstacles the quicker he will be
looked on as of some good to the ma
ton and to himself Take for ex
ample any young man who has no ed
ucation and no profession or trade
what can he do? You will say that h,
can earn living. Well, will answer
this by saying that any one can carr
a living, but at the same time, sup
pose this young man is working il
one of the many industries through
out the country and for some un
known reason he is thrown out o.