Evening star., 1921-02-27
THE ARMY
ME national defense act. as
amended by the act Of June 4.

lSZU, pidCeS upon tHe uepdi l
ment a mandate to organize
the Army of the United States. whieh
Is to be composed of the Regular
Army, the National Guard and the or
ganized reserves. This organization
must be ready in time of peace for
immediate mobilization upon dec
laration of war, and a complete ros-
ter of training officers also must be
available.
writer by Mai. Gen. w. q. Haan. @. s.
director of the war plans division.
careful studies have been made by
the War Department. assisted by Of
ficers of the Reserve Corps and Ma
tional Guard detailed under the law
to make these studies. Conclusions
reached indicate the size necessary
for mobilization in order to insure
reasonable safety to our country from
an invasion.
without going into details as to
the size, said the general I'VE can
definitely say that approximately 100
900 reserve officers are necessary. At
present we have some seventy thou
sand, and the numbers are growing so
that it is hoped we shall soon have
the requisite number. In order that
these officers may he available imme
diateiy uoon mobilization for duties
in connection with handling troops
that are called into the service. they
must. in time of peace. be assigned TO
specific war duties. so that ii Will be
necessary only to notify them of the
mobilization date and they will auto
matically go to their war stations to
function in their duties.
"One hundred thousand reserve Off
GERS REQUIRE a large number of re-
placements each year in order TO keep
them up to the requisite strength.
"One of the problems of the War
Department is to secure from vari-
Gus colleges. training camps and
other sources made available by the
law the necessary number of officer
requirements. which. it is estimated.
will amount to 10000 a year. Plans
are developing to accomplish this
1t is also necessary to keep this
large number of reserve officers in
touch with the developments and
changes that are constantly taking
place in the means and methods of
warfare. Annually a certain per-
camps for short periods of instruc-
tion. The law provides that reserve
officers shall be called into active
service frequently. and for this pur
pose annual appropriations will be
necessary for their payment. instruc-
tion, etc, in order to carry this basic
idea into effect.
TT should not be overlooked that
the War Department under this law
II no longer maintained merely for
the instruction. training and develop
ment of the Regular Army; it be-
comes the overhead for the develop
ment OF the great citizen army. which
must be built up from the National
citizen army will form the great
bulk of our defense in case of war.
Therefore an officer personnel must be
kept constantly in readiness. so that
mobilization and training may be
made with dispatch and We shall not
be found unprepared when We meet
the enemy.
"In this connection" said the gen.
eral, cit may be interesting to re-
call that the United States declared
our mobilization order was drawn
to begin to take effect August 25,
and did not, in fact. begin until about
September 20-five i, and one-half
months after the declaration of war
That five and a half months under
the present plan would be complete
ly; done away with. and that much
time will be gained. IL we have an
eficient Off1cers' Reserve Corps ready
and instructed to meet any national
emergency"
1ekellar BIZ Regulating Promotions.
Section 24-a of the Army reorgani-
xation law contains the following pro-
vision:
Third. captains and lieutenants of
the Regular Army and Philippine
Scouts, originally appointed since
April s, 1917. shall be arranged among
themselves according to commissioned
service rendered prior to November
IL, 1918, and shall be placed at the
foot of the list as prepared TO this
point" When the law was enacted
this provision was understood by
those affected to mean that the Of
ficers selected by the examining
boards to be captains in the Regular
Army would be ranked among them
selves on the promotion list according
to. length of service and that first
lieutenants should be placed among
themselves and the second lieutenantS
in the same manner. This under
standing. it is claimed, has turned out
to be incorrect. In the preparation of
the new promotion lists now being
completed in the War Department it
Is said that captains. first and sec
ond lieutenants are placed indis-
oriminately on one list and are given
q relative rank on this list according
to length of service and age which
win determine for future promotion
in the Army.
This\jnterpretation. officers say, will
work almost inconceivable injustice
to a large number of emergency Of
fcers, who until recently have been
unable to believe that such construc-
ton of the law was ever contem-
plated by the War Department. Be
sides nullifying the decisions of the
examing boards and the final board
headed by Gen. Pershing, this inter-
pretation makes it certain that Off