Jefferson Barracks Citizens Military Camps - Jeffersonian Yearbook (Lemay, MO)

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More mmm In :Major Jfreh 31. leinrnnn ilnf., UH. 5. Qrmp in sincere ' appreciation nf his fruitful efforts in recruiting anh nrgani5ing the QE. 1311. QI. QE. in the Seventh Qlurps Siren this Volume of Ufhe Eiettersunian is respectfully hehicateh. Nl

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JEFFERSONIAN l -'- l t The Training Camp Movement On the 13th of June, 1921 President Viiarren G. Harding made at the VVhite House the following statement: Our present national defense law establishes an economical and democratic military policy thoroughly consistent with our national traditions. It provides for a small Regular Army, to be augmented by great citizen forces in the event of national emergency. This is our traditional military policy. But Where- as in the past these larger war forces have been extemporized after the occurrence of an emergency,the new law wisely provides that the framework of their organization shall be established and developed in time of peace, in so far as this is practicable through the voluntary service of our patriotic young men. The Army of the United States as defined in the new law comprises the Regular Army, the National Guard and the Organized Re- serves. livery patriotic citizen should encourage the develop- ment of these forces, each within its proper spheref' President Harding referred in the above statement to the Army Reorganization Act of June 4th, IQZO, which marked an epoch in our military legislation. It was the concrete embodiment of a very conservative judgment on the important question of national de- fense, as viewed in the light of the World VVar. Enacted nearly two years after the Armis- tice it reflected a certain public opinion as to the unlikelihood of newconflicts by reducing the Regular Army to what was considered a radical minimum, falthough unfortunately it has since been still further reducedj, while at the same time it recognized the need of national insurance by providing for the gradual organization of volunteer forces of defense. An essential part of the policy thus adopted is found in the Reserve Officers, Training Corps and the Citizens' Xlilitary Training Camps without which the National Guard and the Reserves, the second and third elements of the Army of the United States, cannot be adequately maintained. So important is the principle of training in the Army Reorganiza- tion Act that President Harding has repeatedly said: I hope every young man, who can arrange it, will attend one of the Citizens' hlilitary Training Camps, conducted by the War Department in each of the nine Corps Areas. ln this way he will increase his worth to the nation and obtain individual benefits of priceless value to himself and to the community in it hich he lives. I hope to see established, during my administra- tion. a comprehensive system of voluntary military training for .tt least IO0.000 men each yearf' . 'llltis plan had been proposed to the llvar Department by the hlilitary Training Camps Ns-ociation on .Xngttst 29th, IQZO in a letter suggesting that suitable appropriations be asf-.t-tl horn QiHlltfl't'SS to hold civilian camps throughout the country in the summer of 1921. Setretary kltiltn ll. Xleeks promptly favored the request and the VVar Department in- tltttlt-tl this itt-in in its annual budget. llihen it was discussed by the hlilitary Affairs Votntniftee til the llonse, Representative hlulius Kahn, Chairman, supported it on the lttogttl qoztttnt nt of tfiv ic advantage, saying: The value of this training cannot be estimated HIILH' S't'5't'tt