VOLUNTEERS AND THE DRAFT

For those who shelter dark fears that our nation with difficulty may raise a national army of five hundred thousand men, whose fortitude is equal to the task which must be done, it may be pointed out, unless someone has been deceived, such an army might be raised overnight from only those who are most eager to volunteer. Entirely disregarding that now historic million which was to spring to arms in the same short time, there were two hundred thousand men eagerly anxious to obtain admission to the officers' training camps. Their pristine patriotism may not be considered to have lost its gloss. A like number of men volunteered for service under Mr. Roosevelt. Combining these two, we have four hundred thousand men.

This is only the number of those who were ready to go without question and at once, according to the records. As the percentage of those who would go to war at the first call from a spirit of adventure is only about one-tenth or one-fifteenth of those who will willingly go when called upon (as the experience of England has shown) then we may count on four or six million men whose love of country, unlike their love of adventure, is superior to selfish motives of physical immunity.

On this basis we may consider that the main difficulty of the War Department will be to put the best from an eager crowd of registered men. Unless somebody, some place, has blundered in his figures.