New-York tribune., 1921-05-14
" eeks Fights
Army Cut to
10000 Men
House Plan Will Densoralize
Force, War Secretary
Asserts Before the Sem
ate Military Committee
Says We Need I75,OOO
Clash Between Branches of
Congress Foreseen, With
Upper Body for Increase
I',oa, TIe z Triaune,s WasIsfnotoss Bursau

1'roa, The Tribune's Waskfnoton Bareda
WASHINGTON, May 13.-Before the
Senate Military Affairs Committee this
afternoon Secretary of War Weeks
took a pronounced stand against the
reduction of the army to 10000 as pro-
vided for in the army bill as it passed
the House. He declared that the re-
duction contemplated by the House bill
would be utterly demoralizing to the
army" He urged force of 175,0no
men.
II was altogether problematicap
whether the troops would be returned
from Germany in the near future, said
Mr.. Weeks. He declined to go into
discussion of this subject.
The fact that Secretary Weeks is
strongly opposed to the army being re-
duced to 10000 means in all likeli-
hood there will be clash between
Senate and House over the size of the
military force. 1t is expected the SEN
ate Military Committee will report the
bill with provision for 175,000 army
and, that the Senate, after fight, will
pass it in that form.
eTo reduce the army in accordance
with the provisions of the bill approved
by the House," said Secretary Weeks,
would mean that we would have to cut
the army to 10000 men in order to
get the average of 10000 proposed in
the bill.
would Demoralize Army
THE present strength of the army is
230,00 men and $4,000 officers The
number of reenliStments is large, due
to hard times. We cannot make the
reductions called for by the House bill
without utterly demoralizing the army
We should not be put to the expense
and Inconvenience Of discharging our
trained men and then recruiting to
bring it up to the size of the army pro-
posed
I'VE cannot make changes in the fol-
lowing departments of the army; med
ical corps, air service, engineering
corps, signal corps, ordnance and coast
artillery. If they were materially re-
duced, the property under these
branches would deteriorate and become
a loss.
s.The reductions, then, muse be in the
infantry, the field artillery and the cav
airy, which total now about 131 900
In the infantry, for instance, it would
leave only 500 men to a regiment, or
about DO men in company, which
would be only squad 1t would cut
the cavalry in two. 1t would leave us
in the United States only about 90 900
men of our actual fighting force.
In that connection | wish to say that
special uses arise from time to time.
Only recently we had call for troops
at Galveston, Tex., to suppress disor-
ders there. Yesterday. as you know,
we had call from the Governor of
West Virginia calling attention to the
warfare there, both in Kentucky and
West Virginia, in which one or two
men had been killed,
Troops Ready for Cuba
large division of men had been
kept in hand for use in Cuba if de-
velopments had required their pres
ellce. Under the House bill we would
have to gather up about all the avail
able men IN the United States if we
had had to duplicate those men.
While we are not engaged in war
we have other duties to perform and
must be prepared to do it."
Dwelling further on the size Of the
army, Mr.. Weeks said it was smaller
70 proportion to population than ever,
the army ought not be reduced "below
the safety point"
Senator Hitchcock asked il 1000
troops would not do as much good as
10000 IN Germany, but Mr.. Weeks
would not discuss the matter.
The Secretary asked to have the bill
increased $24.934 900 over the House
bib which would bring it up to about
S545,000,000.