Plan To Increase Army Sevenfold.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 15, 1912:
General Staff for Federalizing the Militia and Creating Reserves and Volunteers.
WAR READINESS THE AIM
Says the Need Is Imperative to Strengthen the Army to Face That of a First-Class Power.
Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON. July 14.— The General Staff of the army has completed its plans for an entire reorganization and increase of this country's military establishment, a work upon which it has been engaged since it was founded some years ago. Although the report containing these plans is now in type, it will probably not be presented to Congress at this session, owing to the fact that members of the Senate and House Committees on Military Affairs desire ample time in which to consider all the provisions recommended by the General Staff. Among those most active in the conferences on these plans are Senator Root of New York, former Secretary of War, and Senator du Pont of Delaware, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs. The next conference will be held on Tuesday.
    The great object sought to be gained is the organization of the army on a footing of constant readiness for war, with a permanent expeditionary force always ready for instant service. In order to insure this result it is recommended that the forces liable for duty anywhere be increased above seven times.
    In the regular army the highest proposed unit of organization is raised and the mobile branches, which include all arms except the Coast Artillery, are divided into two parts, the foreign and the domestic. The domestic service is to be kept permanently in the continental United States, while the foreign service is to be sent to American territory elsewhere, to remain, as an organization, outside this country for good.
    In addition to a proposal making for the federalization within constitutional limits, of the present National Guards or State Militia, the General Staff also asks for the creation of two new types of American soldier, namely, the Federal Reservist and the Federal Volunteer, the latter to be recruited in time of peace for war service, and held responsible only to the central government.
    The General Staff also recommends that the present regular army be relieved of police duties in Alaska, and suggests that peace be preserved in that district by a Federal constabulary to be established by Congress.
    In outlining the importance of the reorganization the General Staff points out that the land forces of the United States are now in no condition to face the armies of a first-class power, and maintains that the necessity for this country so to prepare itself is immediate and imperative.
    "Whatever our military institutions may be." says the report, "we must recognize the fundamental fact that victory is the reward of superior force; that modern wars are short and decisive, and that trained armies alone can defeat trained armies."
    " In the light of present-day conditions it is estimated that at the outbreak of war with a first-class power this country should be capable of mobilizing at once an effective force of 460,000 mobile troops and 42,000 coast artillery; that this is the minimum number of first line troops necessary, and that to augment this force and replace its losses plans must be made for raising immediately an addltional force of 300,000 men. * * * All of these forces should be available for service anywhere."
    "The present land forces of the United States comprise in the regular army about 66,000 men out of a total of about 95,500 authorized, and in the National Guard about 125,000 men. The National Guard is not liable for duty on foreign soil, though it can volunteer for this service.
    "In order to raise the complement of trained men the General Staff proposes to augment the standing army by changing the terms of the present enlistment contract to conform to the practice adopted in all other modern armies.
    "It is only necessary to provide," says the General Staff report, "that a man's service shall consist of two periods, one period with the colors, and the other a period of war obligation for a limited time after leaving the service. Under these circumstances, when war is declared, the active army is at once sent into the field and the former soldiers, having a war obligation, are assembled in depots, where they can be forwarded to the front as needed."
    The enlistment contract proposed is for six years, divided half and half. However, by far the greater number of men required for war purposes under the plan proposed will have to be drawn from  civil life. Under present conditions, the General staff points out, the only citizen soldiers in the United States are furnished by the National Guard, which is under State control and owes only incidental support to the Federal Government. In time of peace the National Guard can be used only for intra-State purposes, such as suppression of strikes or breaches of the peace, unless in the very improbable event that it is called upon by the President to serve in quelling disorder in some State.
    The organization of the regular army on the division basis is declared to be the reason for the proposal to reduce the number of army posts from forty-nine to eight, a  step which would replace the present dispersal of the regular land forces by a greater concentration. It is proposed to make each of these eight army posts a division headquarters under the new arrangement.