Gold Medal for Recruiter. A contest was begun during February among the canvassers on duty in the Indianapolis Recruiting District to determine the best recruiter in the territory, with the further specific aim of filling vacancies in the 10th and 11th Infantry regiments. On the first of March, according to Lt. Col. R. S. Woodson, District Recruiting Officer, a gold medal was to be awarded to the canvasser making the best record. The rules of the contest were that each contestant, to be eligible, should get at least five enlistments for the 11th Infantry, and at least one for the 10th Infantry.

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"Rookie's" Letter Enlists Two Buddies

Just a few months ago, Otto H. Meyers, a Texas youth, enlisted for three years with the Medical Department at Fort Sam Houston. He was very favorably impressed with the service generally, and with his organization in particular, and wrote to his civilian chum, Raleigh Walker, telling him of the many advantages of the Army, of the life of a soldier, and advised Walker to enlist. Walker did, on January 28, 1926, and brought with him at the same time his friend Ed. L. Greene.

National Guardsmen Enlist. According to an article recently appearing in the "Oregon Guardsman" the National Guard of that state is contributing a commendable quota of enlistments to the Regular Army, and the other services. Since January 1, 1923, the following named have entered the Regular Service from one com

Major Robert L. Weeks The entire Recruiting Service will learn with grief of the death of Major Robert L. Weeks, U.S.A., Ret'd, late Recruiting Officer at Syracuse, New York, which occurred suddenly on Monday, February 22, 1926.

Major Weeks began his military career as a private on August 10, 1899. During the World War he held the rank of lieutenant colonel.

No greater tribute could be paid to the memory of Major Weeks than the sentiments voiced by Major B. M. Bailey, Corps Area Recruiting Officer, who said in part, "He will be a great loss to our Recruiting Service. He was an excellent recruiter, a hard worker, conscientious, and faithful, and loved by his men."

pany of the 162nd Infantry: the second lieutenant of the company became an officer of that grade in the regular establishment; one enlisted man entered West Point as a cadet; seven enlisted men went into the Regular Army for three years; four entered the Marine Corps, four went into the Navy, and four into the Coast Guard Service. This company, therefore, within the space of three years contributed a total of twenty-one men to the regular forces.

"A" Board Advertising Pays A report recently received from the Recruiting Officer, Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, disclosed some interesting facts with reference to methods of interesting men in the Service. Of twenty-seven enlisted during a given period, eleven were attracted by posters and "A" Board advertising, six were approached by canvassers, four had previous service, three had friends either in the Service, or who had been in themselves, two were attracted by the blue recruiting flag, and one enlisted because his friend enlisted.

-By J. Matika

The King's Shilling

(Continued From Page Five)

adds to individual responsibility and increases efficiency.

By means of lithographic posters, hand bills, pamphlets, and lectures by the Recruiting Officers in each District, the prospect's attention is drawn to the Army. these?

What does he learn from

If he is able-bodied, between the ages of 18 and 25, and can pass the tests, he enlists for twelve years, only part of which is with the colors, and the rest with the reserve. He may select his arm. Cavalry and infantry of the line must serve 7 years with the colors and 5 with the reserves, horse and field artillery 6 and 6, garrison artillery 8 and 4, engineers usually 3 and 9. Household cavalry 8 and 4, and the foot guards 3 and 9 years respectively.

Should the soldier elect to remain with the colors, instead of accepting furlough to the reserve, he may continue on active service until he has completed twenty-one years, when he becomes eligible for pension. In addition it may be said that a number of appointments under the Government-police forces, office work and Civil Service-are reserved for exsoldiers, and it is a fact that many employers prefer to engage an army man in peace time because he is usually a good worker and welldisciplined.

ex

To accept "the King's shilling" is the time-honored expression for enlisting in the army. The King's shilling has expanded, however, like everything. else in this economic age, and it is now really two shillings and ninepence a day, or about $20.00 per month. Early advance to 24 shillings and six pence a week is reasonably to be expected, that is $25.50 month, whence the scale amounts to $118.00 per month. As a tribute to the democratizing influence of the day, a young man of keenness and intelligence may prepare himself to pass through the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, to receive the King's commission and 300 pounds per year, $1500.00.

Rations, quarters and clothes are free as with us. A month's furlough a year, plus extra leaves at all reasonable times, is the rule. Let us glance at a typical day's rations: Breakfast: Tea, bread, margarine, porridge, golden syrup, haddock. Dinner: Roast mutton or beef, potatoes, greens, jam-roll.

Tea: Tea, bread, margarine, jam, sardines.

This might not satisfy American appetites, but it is quite standard through

out the United Kingdom as all will agree who are familiar with provincial hotels or Bloomsbury boarding houses. Soldiers' quarters are much improved in recent years. All have special mess halls, hot baths, reading and writing rooms, and some of the more up-to-date are fitted with separate cubicles such as one sees at the large fashionable schools.

The clothing allowance is not unlike ours, except that they have their dress uniforms once more.

A recruit may choose the regiment to which he would like to belong and after some preliminary training at a depot he joins his organization. It is only at this period that his provisional enlistment is made final. The unsuitable have been weeded out. Once with the regiment he begins to wear its distinctive uniform, joins in its sports, and develops friendships among the men with whom he is destined to serve. Moreover, he learns that almost all infantry regiments have battalions at home and abroad. The battalions alternate on foreign service. He has a chance to go to the West Indies, Egypt, Hong Kong, Malta, or India. If the soldier is married he is permitted to take his wife and family along, free of all costs. He retains his friends, his uniform, and his regiment throughout his military career.

Nor is the present day demand for education ignored. Lessons are taught in the army schools that range from most elementary subjects to college entrance examinations, while training in many trades and practical arts is undertaken in the Engineers, Medical Corps, Ordnance, and Tanks. rate of pay for skilled men in these units is higher than that of the ordinary soldier.

The

Before leaving the Warwickshire country I passed through Leamington, a popular watering place in the Midlands, and there heard a splendid band concert in the park. The band, in the dress uniform of an hussar regiment, rendered its mixed program of classical and popular music to a large enthusiastic crowd, seemed to me to furnish excellent publicity for the service to which it belonged.

Arriving in London, after a pleasant cruise down the Thames, I hastened over to Buckingham Palace to witness, once again, the change of guard. Here the public is treated daily to a beautifully executed guard mount in full dress-scarlet coats and bearskin shakos. A magnificent band discourses music for a quarter of an hour during the parade. Grenadiers, Coldstream Guards, Irish and Scottish Guards furnish the details. At Whitehall a similar ceremony is performed by a troop of Life Guards or Horse Guards-the

coal black chargers, shiny of coat, the snowy pipe-clay, the polished boots, the glistening cuirass overtopped with the graceful plume of red or white, complete the picture of the finest looking horsemen in the world.

And the public never wearies of the spectacle. There is always an audience with the ubiquitous "Bobbies" to hold the crowd in check.

It is in London that ones sees Tommy Atkins at his best. Here one may visit the palatial Knightsbridge Cavalry Barracks, or the large and fine Chelsea Barracks of the Foot Guards, and see how Britain's soldiers are housed. One may watch many picturesque ceremonies centering around the Guard at the Bank of England, St. James', Buckingham Palace, Whitehall and the Tower. It is sentiment, perhaps, but sentiment is a powerful aid to discipline and esprit de corps.

Naturally, in a rapid journey through England, one has time only for a cursory glance. Nevertheless, I would say that the English proceed less aggressively in their recruiting. They are more leisurely and are considerably more dignified.

When we contemplate the relative problems facing American and British recruiting we cannot avoid concluding that the English have the advantage. The territory to be covered is only one-thirtieth of ours. Within this tiny area, however, is a population of 40,000,000 from whom to draw. Wages and salaries are lower in England than those that obtain here. British army pay approaches closely the pay of the U. S. Army. In competition with industrial life, in bidding for service, the British army is in an easier position. Its longer term of service reduces the "turn-over".

And this advantage is further enhanced by the fact that well over a million Englishmen are unemployed today. America, on the other hand, is everywhere short of labor, as this is written, due perhaps to a combination of unexampled prosperity together with restricted immigration.

Within the army itself we may look for further important differences affecting the recruiting problem. I am inclined to settle upon three salient points: the possession of a permanent, comfortable and dignified barracks, the wearing of a handsome, well-fitting uniform, and, finally, the identification of each officer and man throughout his career, with the same organization, at home and abroad, sharing with his comrades the joys and sorrows, the secrets and glories, that enshrine the regimental hearth,

F

ROM printing peace treaties in Paris to setting up copy for an army pamphlet on how to lunge and thrust and stab with a bayonet is beating plowshares into swords with a vengeance.

Yet that is part of the life history of Linotype No. 22,551, now in operation at the Infantry School Printing Shop, Fort Benning, Ga., the largest military institution in America, located ten miles from Columbus, Ga.

This machine went overseas like any doughboy, and was used at the Chaumont headquarters of the American Expeditionary Force, setting up Pershing's general orders and citations for heroism in action against the Germans. Later it did its bit transforming copy into type for the Stars and Stripes, the daily newspaper of the A.E.F.

Then when President Wilson and his diplomats gathered in Paris for the peace conference, the veteran Linotype was put

Uncle Sam.

By WILLIAM W. ELLISON

to work assisting in getting out the Treaty of Versailles, which determined the terms

Corporal John F. Heisler at the keyboard of the Linotype that went overseas to the World War, helped to win it, and still is doing good work daily in Georgia

of the peace between Germany and the allied and associated powers.

When the plenipotentiaries came home and the olive branch had been waved to the satisfaction of the pacifists, the diminished American forces in France brought their "Daddy" machine with them. In the course of time it was shipped down to Georgia to assist in the work of the infantry school-shipped to the military institution where selected officers of all grades from second lieutenant to brigadier generals take special advanced training in post war tactics and technique.

At Fort Benning it has no palatial quarters, as was the case in Paris. The historic machine inherited the corner of a shaky old dairy barn equipped with a concrete floor. Here it has been and is turning out pamphlets for leaders of soldiery in future conflicts for the defense of America and her ideals of humanity and justice.

From "Rookie" to Staff Sergeant in 352 Days

An article which appeared in the Recruiting News of January 1, 1926, told the story of the phenomenal rise of Robert A. Rollison, D.E.M.L. from private to staff sergeant in something less than eighteen months. The publication of this story resulted in another case, still more extraordinary, being brought to light.

E. F. Savacool, 41st Coast Artillery, Fort Kamehameha, Territory of Hawaii, quit his job of firing a locomotive on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad in March, 1924, and on the fifteenth of that month enlisted in the Army for service with the Coast Artillery Corps in the Islands. Just 352 days later he was promoted to the grade of staff sergeant in the railroad organization to which he is at present assigned.

Ꮕ

Travels Eighty Miles to Attend Drill

It is the proud boast of the Corvallis Company of the Oregon National Guard that one of its members, Pvt. Hubert Lewis, of Salem, Oregon, each Wednesday night makes an eightymile trip in order to drill with his organization. One night recently, Lewis missed the last stage for the return trip. Nothing daunted, he just stepped out and hiked the forty miles back to his home in Salem!

Celebrates First Anniversary The Camp Lewis News, a weekly sheet of four pages, published by the personnel of Camp Lewis, Washington, celebrated the first anniversary of its establishment with the issue of February 6, 1926. The publication is a newspaper in the strictest sense, both in content and in make-up. During the year it has come to be recognized as belonging in the front rank among the many thousands of Service publications now in existence.

Doughboy Band Gives Concert The band of the Seventh Infantry. stationed at Vancouver Barracks, Washington, on February 12, 1926, burst into fame almost overnight in Portland, Oregon, and vicinity as a result of a concert which was played in the city auditorium on that date.

In addition to the musical selections by the band in concert, a number of special stunts were also featured.

The concert was heard by a large audience, whose high-pitched enthusiasm increased steadily as the concert proceeded.

The affair was somewhat in the nature of a benefit performance having been launched by the Seventh to raise the amount pledged by that regiment to the new Doughboy Stadium at Fort Benning, Georgia, which was completed late last year.

Comedy Skit at Camp Lewis

A troupe of vaudeville performers, headed by Lt. James J. Burns, 161st Motor Transport Company, National Guard, recently gave a comedy skit entitled "What Price B'Gorry," at the Green Park Theatre, Camp Lewis. Washington. The play was declared a success by the military audience, as well as by the theatre-going public at Seattle, Washington, in whose presence it had been previously given. The authors of the play, Lt. Burns and D. J. O'Brien, have received a number of attractive offers to produce it in large cities elsewhere. The story has to do with experiences of a motor transport group behind the lines in France.

Celebrates Anniversary Battery A, 216th Field Artillery, Oregon National Guard, recently celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of its organization. The ceremonies were held in the Chamber of Commerce club rooms, Portland, Oregon. The festivities consisted of a banquet, a number of addresses by celebrities in military circles, and entertainment features-musical and vaudeville stunts.