Evening star., 1943-04-06
1943 Army Duy

sion for remembering that the United
States Army "iS distinctly different
from other armies, in origin, organ
ization and employment" It's model
admittedly was English. The Bill of
Rights, formulated in 1889, applied
to the American Colonies as we'll as
to the British Isles when it set forth j:
"The raising or keeping a standing
army within the kingdom In time of
| peace, unless it be with consent of
Parliament, is against the law" A
point of view very commonly held on
both sides of the Atlantic was ex-
pressed by Thomas Jefferson in 1914
when he wrote: THE Greeks by their
laws, and the Romans by the spirit
of their people, took care to put into
the hands of their rulers no such
engine of oppression as a standing
army. Their system was to make
every man soldier, and oblige him
to repair to the standard Of his coun-
try whenever that was reared. This
made them invincible, and the same
remedy will make us So"
Not merely in theory but quite
deliberately in terms of historic fact
has the philosophy so expressed been
worked out by successive generations
OF the American race. When George
Washington arrived at Cambridge to
take command of the Colonial forces
at the start of the Revolution, he
found assembled there awaiting him
number of militia contingents
brought together by voluntary CO.
operation" He created the CONT
mental Army, responsible to Congress,
and with it achieved the independ-
ence asserted in the Declaration of
1776. Then, with the exception Of
Hamllton's Battery, the regiments
went back to their own States" and
were disbanded.
1t was the Whisky Rebellion In
Western Pennsylvania in 1894 that
dramatized the need for a small
Regular Army under the exclusive
control Of the National Government. 4"
The war with Mexico was fought by
Federal troops with the help of new
regiments (which) were called regu-
lar because they belonged to no
State" At the beginning of the Civil
War volunteers were recruited locally
both in the South and In the North
When the United States entered the
First World War in 1917, "the Regular
Army was greatly expanded.
State troops were called for, and
mustered into the service. A
new National Army, of temporary
troops under United States control,
was formed" BY 1922, however, the
National Army "had disappeared,
and the Regular Army was reduced
to a peace basis" Reserve officers.
veterans with field experience and
products of the Citizens Military
Training Camps, formed the nucleus
of the existing military organization
to which President Roosevelt refers
in his proclamation of March Is as
having carried the flag of the United
States and the ideals which it repre-
sents to every part of the earth"
Army Day In 1943 by the very
nature of the contest in which the
United States is engaged ought not to
be regarded simply as day set aside
for a demonstration of technical
perfection as it was In the years
before Pearl Harbor Rather, it's con-
notations are universal. "Our soldiers
on the firing lines and in posts of
danger depend for their very lives
on the constant flow Of ammunition,
weapons and supplies from their
brothers at home; and on the fidelity
OF their countrymen to maintain the
ideals which they bravely defend"
Hence the President summons the
whole American Nation to intensity
"the war effort in factories, fields,
mines, transportation lines and
ports" In no other way can faith
be kept with the thousands of citizens
in uniform now serving overseas. "A
country worthy of their sacrifice and
fit for their return" must be main
tanned for them.