Vernon Parish Democrat. (Leesville, La.) 1917-193?, 1921-10-13
BY EDWARD 3. CLARK.

AEOm DuuSeLman CnarleS u. Dawes IL
that Secretary Weeks has succeeded
in slashing things. Perhaps am put.
ting it somewhat rudely, and perhaps
Secretary Weeks may not like it ii
he should happen to see it, but am
convinced that he wishes he had not
been compelled to save money along
certain lines, although perfectly will
Ing to save it along other lines.
Congress has cut the American army
force to 10000 men by an act Of leg
islation, OF course here is a big say.
ing and the credit for it cannot go to
the, secretary of war, because it is
what might be called a perforce saw
ing, but it is said that the secretary
has saved money in other ways and
believes that he has done 1t without
hurting what is left of the service.
The American army today has about
1900 officers, possibly 13,50O Seem
ingly this number is disproportion-
ate to the number Of enlisted men.
but the word Of the War department
is that there is work enough for all
these officers to do, and that there is
no necessity Of cutting down the COM
missioned personnel. Your CORE
spondent has reason to think that
Secretary Weeks is strongly opposed
to any decrease in the army officer list.
Many May Lose Commissions.
There is fear, h0weveiu.iR tile serv-
Ice that when congress gets through
with Mr.. FOrdney's tax and tariff
legislation 1t will turn it's attention
to the army and will legislate some
hundreds and perhaps thousands Of
men out of their commissions. A
great many Of the young officers en-
tered the service on the Plea that
they were needed, and it was patri-
otto duty to serve their country.
Some of them left good paying posi-
lions in private business with assured
futures to answer the call. The proc
ess of sending them back to civil life
by legislative act might be called
Something worse than heartless. It
probably would be bad business any
way.
There are some ranking officers of
the army who think that a decrease
in the commissioned personnel is pos
sible without working an injustice
to the younger officers. Probably the
means for securing a reduction which
is being thought on by some of these
ranking officers may seem a bit heart
less also, but if their method of reduc-
ton in the officers lists is adopted no.
body will suffer heavy pecuniary loss,
although they may suffer somewhat In
soul.
There are military men who think
that there should be a lot of COM
pulsory retirements in the service.
Officers who have served 80 years can
be retired by executive order, but al
ways in such case there necessarily
must be a suggestion that the officer
has outlived his usefulness, or that he
better than others can be spared from
active duty.
There are also good many officers
who voluntarily can retire because Of
the length of their service, but who
have some years to go before reaching
the age limit when retirement is com
pulsory. The suggestion has been
that some Of these men might be in
1uced to retire to make room at the top.
Creating the Reserve Corps.
General Pershing and his staff are
hard at work trying to create a real
reserve corps for the army. There
are something like $4,000 reserve off,
GERS who already have been commits
stoned. This seems like a large num-
Der, but 1t is not enough In case the
United States should be compelled to
-aise another army like that which |
vent to the front, or was ready to 90
% the front in 1918.
The real need of the reserve CORPS
Oday, Of course, Is enlisted reserve |
strength. AS yet there are few en-
listed men in the reserve corps. It
will be difficult to bring the young |
Americans into the reserve unless in
lucements are offered. Just what
curse will be pursued is not vet
,nown, but 1t is said that the gen
raj staff hopes to have a real re-
erve army
1t is claimed that the work of re-
Constituting the National Guard and
t conducting citizens training camps.
las been carried on with energy. AMI
he great combat divisions which won
UGH high distinction during the World
var, are to be reconstructed. It IA
nown that the strength of all the
IatiOnal Guard units which the War
apartment has recognized since the
rst of the year is $4,000. Last
farch there were only 1852 federauy
National Guard officers.
'Oday there are virtually twice that
lumber and this is marked and sat
Jfactory increase, of course.
The work Of organizing and local.
ling the reserve corps units into stan
orps areas Is now I'm nroOrass OAa