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Show ioidjoo-is ii pun Bf GHAMBEOLAIN Preparedness Measures to Be Rushed Through Senate, Sen-ate, President Wilson Is Informed. INCREASED FORCE WILL BE URGED National Defense Convention Conven-tion by Unanimous Vote Recommends Compulsory Compul-sory Training. WASHINGTON. March 20. Plans to forward further preparedness measures for the army today began to assume df finite form. How an increased army force may be ; promptly secured for the present emergency emer-gency as well as universal training as a national policy were discussed by President Presi-dent Wilson with Senator Chamberlain of Oregon, chairman of the senate military mili-tary committee. At the same time, Secretary Sec-retary Baker and administration leaders in congress considered legislation needed Immediately for the military establishment. establish-ment. Senator Chamberlain told the president he believed the executive now has authority au-thority without further action by congress con-gress to raise at once an army of more than 700.000 men, by increasing the regular reg-ular army to war strength and calling out all of the national guard, at war strength, with co-operation from state executives. To Rush Bill in Senate. There was no intimation that the president pres-ident was considering such a step Immediately, Im-mediately, but the whole field of measures mea-sures necessary to. secure a larger force was discussed. For present needs, the war department has decided, Secretary Baker said, to submit to congress a. budget containing virtually the same provisions as the . regular army appropriation bill which failed at the" last session. Estimates for the expense in connection connec-tion with an enlarged army or for any emergency activities will be presented later. This decision coincides with the house plan to re-enact the appropriation bill without change and send it at once to the senate. Senator Chamberlain also agreed to expedite ex-pedite the bill in the senate. To this end, he said he would not again offer his universal uni-versal training bill as a rider if it would delay prompt action on the supply measure. mea-sure. Urges Compulsion. The conference between the president and Senator Chamberlain, at the latter's request, was primarily to discuss the senator's universal training plan. He asked the president to indorse the general gen-eral principle of compulsory training in his forthcoming message to congress. The president, it was said, ?ave no indi- j cation of his probable course. He was . sutid to favor some plan for providing ' military training, but was non-cornmUia.1 J regarding the Chamberlain plan, to vhi--h ' he is understood to have eorne objections. objec-tions. After leaving the White house, the nntor s.'i id he whs "srill hoj 'Wul'" of ad tnini.ctr:ili vp Indorsement of Ms measure, mea-sure, and alo expresffr-d increased optimism op-timism over prospers of pr-ssc- hy the senate of some form of univer&al training train-ing measure. a rr.Oilr nf bis tulle with rhp nr.l. dent, Senator Ohamherlain expects to make several important a mend men ts to his bill, particularly with the idea of increasing in-creasing the number of trained soldiers it would produce in a short period. To Raise Age Limit. To this end he proposes to raise the acre limit of youths subject to training from 19 to 20 years, to secure more mature ma-ture men, and to begin the training periods sooner than provided in the tentative tenta-tive bill, which proposes that about 500,-000 500,-000 youths be trained annually, with six months' continuous service. Another amendment, the senator said, would be to create thirty-six divisions in the countrv for the segregation of the training work, with facilities for training an army division of from 22.000 to 2i.um0 men in each divisional camp. While some of the divisions, Senator Chamberlain Chamber-lain thought, would have larger bodies under training than others, he believed at least 500,000 young- men would be thus secured. The Oregon senator impressed upon the president that his plan would not entail the enormous expense of the army general gen-eral staff training bill. $156,000,000 for Training. He estimated that without providing costlv permanent barracks at training camps and by having the students live in 1 tents the annual 'cost of training 500,000 1 men would be, roughly, $150,000,000. ! As to the measures necessary for increasing in-creasing the army in an emergency. Senator Sena-tor Chamberlain said that under existing law the president is authorized to increase the standing army to its war strength of 270.000. or wiih auxiliaries aggregating a regular force of about 300.000. The war strength of the national guard was estimated esti-mated at about 440.000, with all forces fully enlisted. Thus combined, the senator said, a trained army of nearly three-quarters of a million men could be provided, without action by congress. - Army of 1,000,000. When the regular army appropriation bill reaches the senate, Senator Chamberlain Chamber-lain said he thought it would be increased with or without specific request from the-war the-war department, at least sufficiently to provide material necessary for an army of 1,000,000 men. A change planned "by the war department depart-ment in the supply bill is to shorten the time for accumulation of reserve materials for the army. The present bill provides for their purchase over a period of from four to five vears. and the department is planning to ask that funds for this purpose pur-pose be made immediately available. |