Albuquerque morning journal., 1922-06-03
ARMY'S SIZE IS
SET At $4,000
MEN BY SENATE
Measure Is Passed Without
a Record Vote and 1t Now
Goes to Conference With
the Lower House.


Washington, June 2.--Carrying
an appropriation Of $S41,750,O00
the annual army appropriation bill
was passed late today by the SEN
ate. 1t fixes the size of the army
| for the next year at an average OF
1880 officers and $4,000 men.
Passage of the bill, which was
without record vote, followed
quickly after a test vote, by which
the senate accepted, 40 to 81, its
committees action in increasing
the house figure on the size of the
army from 115,000 to $4,000 en-
listed men. The strength OF 1850
| officers compares with 1000 as
voted by the house.
The measure now goes to con-
ference with the house but it is not
expected that the discussions will
begin before Tuesday,
Muscle Shoals Amendment.
4 Next to the question of the size
of the army the proposition causing
most debate was the amendment
submitted by the agriculture COM
mittee appropriating $7,5O0.00O for
continuation of work on the Muscle
Shoals project, which the senate
accepted without a record vote
after a preliminary tangle which
| lasted for an hour
The Muscle Shoals amendment
promised for a time to reopen the
whole question of the governments
policy with respect to the power
| project, but Chairman Norris of
the agriculture committee declared
that no policy had been determined
and that to delay work further on
dam No. . in the Tennessee river
would be IAN economic crime"
He showed further that approx
} imately half of the remaining
} troops were assigned to non-com-
batant details and in work in con-
nection with the training of civil
ian soldiers.
} Present Strength OF Army.
\ The present actual strength of
the army was given by the senator
as 137, 900. with an officer person
; mel of slightly more than $4,000.
An attempt was made by Senator
Hitchcock to eliminate what he de-
scribed as "pure waste of money
in supplying s135,00 for the oper-
alton of the Springfield. Mass,
arsenal, where it was proposed to
. spend $1,000 a day in manufac-
: turing rifles. when the government
now has $500, 900 in storehouse, he
said. He was d. -e.ted. however,
40 to IS.
: The senate committee reduced
, from 100000 to 100000 the
amount appropriated for the
helium gas plant at Fort Worth,
Tex, and although the committee
later was sustained, Senator Shep-
pard, democrat, Texas, made
strong demands for retention of
the house figure.
Expect Hard Fight.
Although the army strength
Iagreed upon by the senate was re-
garded as compromise between
the figure of $4,000 sought by the
war department and that fixed by
the house, senators expect a hard
fight before an agreement is
ireached with the house.
Party lines were broken when the
test vote was taken. Nine demo-
Gratis voted with the republican ma
jority in upholding the senate COM
mittee. while six republicans were
counted in the negative. Demo-
Gratis voting for the $4,000 army
include Ashurst, Gerry Heflin,
kendrck, Myers, Sheppard, Smith,
Underwood and Williams. Repub-
leans who voted against the propo-
sition were: Borah, Capper, Ladd,
LaFollette, Norris and Willis.
Wadsworth Opens Debate.
| In opening debate on the army
strength Mr.. Wadsworth declared
1.-THE committee believed "rock bot
TOM had been reached and that to
make further reductions would inn
peril not only the army organiza-
ton as contemplated by the re-
Organization act Of 1920, but create
a menacng situation for the coun-
try in event of unforeseen troubles.
1t would be utter folly" he added,
Ito "mangle the skeleton" of the
army so that It could not be revived
in an emergency.
Mr. Wadsworth referred to the
sea coast Notifications, saying only
twenty-five of the seventy-five were
now manned and that further cut
lin the forces would leave an addi-
tional ten or a dozen in the hands
of caretakers