The Elk Mountain pilot., 1924-04-24
MOBILIZATION DAY
TO CALL OUT NATION
Maneuvers i'm Which 100000 900 Peo.
pie VIII Take Part is Planned
By Junius B. Wood


greatest demonstration in patriotism
and preparedness is set for Septem-
ber Rehabilitation Day, as it is to
be called.
| On that day in every city and ham,
let of the United States, in field and
factory and outlying island posses
sions, wherever the Stars and Stripes
are unfurled, citizens are called upon
to offer their services to their coun-
try as if an actual war, instead Of
make-believe war, had been declared.
All the vast combatant potentiali-
ties of the Nation will be mobilized
to show what its citizens would do
and what its military organizations
could do if the emergency arose.
The day will make itself national
holiday.
The intention is the nationwide,
unarmed civilian maneuver shall be
an annual event. For this year its
inaugural, it will be tribute to Gen.
eral John Pershing, commander of
the American Expeditionary Forces.
1t will also be his valedictory, as
on the following day he automatically
! retires from the office of Chief Of
Staff, which he has held since the
war, and from active service in the
Army, having reached the retiring
age of sixty-five years.
Mobilization Day will be the first
practical test of the peace time
working of the National Defense Act,
test in which every man, woman
and child in the United States will
be concerned. The date selected is
the anniversary of the Battle of St.
Mihiel, September IL, 1918, the first
operation of the American Army in
France.
The success of this day-a demon
stration of the organization of a Ma
tion of 100000 0,000-will, in the opin-
ion of General Pershing, be an ac-
complishment greater than anything
which he accomplished in France.
The General Staff, under Brigadier
General Hugh A. Drum, has been
working on the plans for several
months and will have them complet-
ed to the minutest detail before the
date agreed upon.
On Mobilization Day, Washington,
or the War Department, will not di-
rect but merely observe. Commune
ties and citizens will work out the
problem with the machinery which is
in their home cities and towns
Mobilization Day will educate and
test the American public in the mean
ing and operation of the National De-
Tense Act, the bulwark of the Consti-
tuition of the United States and of
the Nations defense. Each commune
ty will have an opportunity to show
what it can do.
The men and women who have
pledged themselves as reserve officers,
members of the National Guard or
otherwise will show how efficiently
they can direct the work.
Headquarters will be established.
National Guard companies will fill UP
to full strength, volunteers for other
units will be enrolled and detailed
according to their individual qualifi-
cations, and motor corps will be Or
ganized
Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls
will turnout; welfare organizations
will plan their activities and even
factories and other industries will be
mobilized to do their part in the i'm
| aginary war work.
This is only sketchy outline of
the vast detail for the day in every
city and village.
Mobilization Day will show whether
the United States has an organization
which can be the basis of a real citi-
zen's army. an economical and demo-
cratic defense for the Nation.
The organization is lesson from
the war embodied in the National De-
fense Act.
Under the present system mobiliza-
tion and the early stage of training
will be in the home community.
Newspapers and the radio will be
used to acquaint the public with the
part which it can play in the DAYS
event.
The civilians who will be in charge
in the thousands Of communities have
their instructions and it will devolve
upon them to show whether they can
carry it through successfully.
Each community will do its part
alone. Each will report the result of
its days efforts to the General Head
quarters in Washington. Then after
the local parades and the celebra-
tions and the last reports have come
in, General Pershing will tell the Ma
tion over the radio, what the day has
brought forth.