(ACTIVITIES OF U.S.ARMY - continued)
a better citizenship. The summer months when most everybody is
able to get away from their everyday work for two weeks or more,
are the most available for a profitable vacation in connection
with military training in camp.
The sort of work done in these camps constitutes the most ideal
recreation for men whose occupations keep them indoors during the
fall, winter and spring. Certainly no other vacation promises so
much in health or in long life to either the individual or the na
tion. At all our military camps will be members of the Regular
Army, both officers and enlisted men, acting as instructors and in
other helpful capacities.
The Regular Army is demoting its best efforts and the best mil
itary months of the year to the training of our civilian soldiers.
Military science has become more complicated and most exact as
civilization has developed, and more time is required for learning
the varied duties of a soldier. Instruction has to be given in
the tactics of Infantry, Cavalry, Field Artillery, Coast Artillery,
Air Service, Engineers, Signal Corps., and Chemical Warfare Service.
Weapons have become intricate and their use requires skill.
New Citizen Army.
Our new citizen army, created by the National Defense Act of
1920, is the logical product of our bitter World War experience in
unpreparedness. It will muster in summer training this year in
the United States a very small Regular Army contingent of 91,000
men; National Guardsmen, spread over 48 states, of 162,000; and
officers of the Organized Reserves, 17,000, or about one sixth of
the total number of Reserve Officers. These three components
constitute what is called the Army of the United States.
In addition there will also be some eight thousand young men
from our colleges and schools in Reserve Officers Training Corps
Camps, and about thirty thousand from all classes and communities
in the Citizens Military Training Camps. None of these, however,
will be members of our new Citizen Army, as they are merely its
pupils, learning the practical lessons of constructive citizenship
and patriotism through preparing themselves as individuals to ful
fill the most sacred of all citizenship duties - defense of home
and country. They can qualify,if they wish, to become officers
and non-commissioned officers in our new citizen army, by comple
ting certain prescribed courses.
This action is left entirely to their decision, as the training
exacts no obligations from them.
New TJ. S,Mi li tari sm.
This, Briefly, is a description of what some people have been
pleased to criticise as “new militarism of the United States’1.
It is true that the citizens army of the United States, compos
ed in the main of young men who only train intensively from two to
six weeks during the summer months, is the largest measure of mil
itary defense this nation has ever had.
Before the World War there was in addition to our small but ef
ficient Regular Army, only the forty nine separate and distinct
National Guards of our several states, but they were in such poor
shape that they had to be reorganized and trained for many months
before they could be used in that conflict.
To all intents and purposes, the Organized Reserves, the Citi
zens’ Military Training Camps and Reserve Officers' Training Corps
are new elements in our available military forces. No further proof
is needed to satisfy any fair minded person that our new army
could not readily be used for the purpose of aggression.