Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more
Image provided by: University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Newspaper Page Text
28 Of Allotments To Soldiers’ Dependents * "The War Department authorizes the following: | There has been considerable mis . ding regarding the payment | allotments to the dependents of ldiers because of the confusion in ginds of many persons concern the allotments under the old sys- E.:nd those paid under the so- L war-risk insurance act. The ~ Igr of 1899 authorized an allotment 3 and the war-risk insurance 6t of last year also provides.for al ent to dependents of enlisted ' Under the first law the Army per focted an allotment system which en " abled enlisted men who are ordered g:mdnty abroad to have withheld | p) their pay a stated amount that would be paid to their families in this 3::&1. These payments were made hrough the depot quartermaster at Washington. The war-risk insurance act provided for the dependents of en listed men called intg, the service un der war conditions. This enactment, which is more liberal and generous in the scope of its provisions than any similar law enacted provided that in - addition to the amount withheld from the soldiers’ pay the Government - should pay an allowance to the sol dier’s family. The Army allotment law, as orig inally drawn, provided for the inter vention of a complete month between the date of the accruing of the sol dier’s pay, from which the allotment was deducted, until the time of pay ment; that is, an allotment withheld from the pay of the soldier due on U. 8. NOW MAKING 3,000 A5-CALIBER PISTOLS A DAY Increased stress is being placed on the manufacture of the .45-caliber sutomatic pistol by the Ordnance De partment, following a change in equipment of the American Expedi ~ tionary Forces, that has quadrupled the total pistol requirements. By im ng some reorganized factories . apd borrowing facilities from rifle 4 roduction the Ordnance Department : _ to be able to meet the require ts without undue delay. Daily production is now about 8,000 and is steadily growing. This new demand upon the Ord nance Department marks the climax of a 19-year development of the -~ American “forty-five.” In 1899 tests were begun by ordnance officers of all - the best pistols then in military use. These included the Luger, Mauser, -~ Parabellum, Borchardt, Browning and the automatic revolver. Following the tests experiments were begun with the idea of developing the auto fnatic feature of the pistol. These experiments, designed to increase the power, rapidity of fire and accuracy, continued until 1911. In 1911 the automatic pistol had been perfected . to such an extent that it would fire 21 shots in 15 seconds—more than double the capacity of the old revol ver. In one test 6,000 shots were fired with no mishaps. The .45-caliber was tried out and adopted officially by the United States Army in 1911. _ X-RAY AT THE FRONT The X-ray is now carried to the front-line trench for the benefit of wounded soldiers, so that mno time may be lost in ascertaining the con - dition of wounds. The Army Medical Department has developed a mobile X-ray outfit, carried on a standard Army ambulance slightly modified. This outfit includes an X-ray table, a dark room, also a complete set of apparatus for the localization:of for eign bodies. Fully as expert work can be done —ith this mobile outfit as in any base hospital X-ray depart ment. Its use in the fleld makes it - ible for the surgeon at the front ~ g send a complete report of a sol dier’s condition when a man is trans gerred to a hospital back of the lines. UTILITARIAN COFFEE “QOur coffee is put to many uses,” writes a U. 8. Marine now in France. ¥We use it for beverage purposes; we shave with it and we use it for ink.” 8. O. 8. ‘ln Europe food is so scarce it is sa ered. To waste it is sinfal. i - : - e RS G T PN el 7 s e = T [f O Een RN i TL S 31 gRR gAFn il . e g == , ey Y AR 3 eTR # = Aflfi'\ 5 . . 27 0e o o ———. & W et GRS . : e 3 g e, ' \% ~ W/ = 2 i;\T 7R T . e g s s | - [ —=¥ Rt e: - R /L =~ 5 - P e = - é & P =ek s e gty 2o W - et bt be B R s 5 o Boe & X S A s . - = g P . e i ; e 0 g eiy : 2 B ' o e ee T 8 ?%4",’;, i Rk i=i i ~ i:g‘ Hias (v::— : = N pazw ,‘ i ‘,;‘_,7!; s 3%” i":‘@:‘%’ T. " ‘?:“' ‘l{,;*%?“‘;? m“’f' '*V\ r:‘ vfi‘ ;::“ 3 ;fii‘ff‘?");’-z - A’a}?’i e ‘"“:fi""? BT geR S i TSR S R e el i e TRENCH AND CAMP May 31 could not be paid until July 1. For the purpose of advaneing the date of payment and doing away with this intervening month, the law was amended and steps were immediately taken to bring the payments up to date, two payments of allotments being made in the month of Novem ber, 1917. At the present time the allotment payments for any one month are made beginning with the first of the succeeding month. At the beginning of the war the Army allotments 'were less than 10,000 in number, while at the pres ent time they are in excess of 800,000. Notwithstanding the increase in the number of allotments, payments have been made each month promptly and accurately, except where allotment forms were incorrectly filled out, =ddresses incorrectly given, or other causes over which the disbursing offi cers had no control. These payments have been made by ‘the flnance division of the depot quartermaster, which is now the cen tral disbursing division, office of the Quartermaster General. The total payment for May was approximately $5,000,000, and this payment was completed June 8. The allotment law, ‘as amended October 6, provided also for the allotment of commissioned officers as well as enlisted men, and at the present time some 30,000 com miasioned officers have taken advan tage of this provision, allotting ap proximately $1,000,000 per month. Included in the allotments are the thousands of mon'fily payments for Liberty bonds allotted for by com missioned officers and enlisted men. During the month of August the cen tral disbursing division will be faced with the duty of distributing a million fifty-dollar bonds of the second Lib erty loan, which were contracted for by officers, enlisted men, and perma nent civilian employees. September 15. I have read Pather’s letter through again. It is filled with fine indigna tion over the killing of my little cousin. ] think his indignation is greater than his sense of loss. In his letter he says, ‘“Here you have the whole story of why we are at war. We are fighting a great brute force that had injected itself into our ctiviliza tion, Laddie, did you ever stop to think that if you and men like you had not gone to put an end to this thing that, in some future year, it might have been your own child that was Kkilled?” Somehow I can't help but feel that Father is right—it might have been in America instead of in France and Belgium. Only the ocean saved us. &l Y : RN |o > { ,“ N‘ - V< X Ry X I ¢/, e EeP U / // ‘\\x L | '“/‘ oA\ £ ’“"‘. - // / s —y‘_l‘. -e l' o AM . ‘ () "> \ B S Tve N gi' T '*‘ Y A Y - A|| - K Y N Al /§) ' ié 3 s j-* o Sany ), A 50 .' 3 hd [ l’fi -- e R Y " R & 7 “It might have been your own child that was killed.” When people talked of the German | menace before we were drafted 1 could not feel as they did; but I have heard some of the tales of the men that have come here to instruct us. They, too, gave up good positions and comfort, just as I did. Some of them have been wounded, badly wounded. Some have been terribly gassed and they will never be able to go on the fighting line again. It is the thought that they must stay away that saddens them, although their positions now are quite comfortable and there is nothing in their injuries that will shorten their lives, perhaps. Ihey have a splendid scorn of men | that are slackers. I call it spiendid | because I am sure it is not more re sentment over the fact that the men| who staved at home were practically untonsised b tha ywar They have a Confessions Of A Conscript 13377 1338000 1 L sey e s h'a"k' j7Y , ;[ ‘ § ;!‘lzt‘l'tiv‘; L 0 - VI s T ™ > AR T '\“i.hm“ ”]IH. a2 e ' UL i | (Lt e 83~ e . 3 LRGN, i =" W l'l Y':' 4 \\v‘-‘v‘ ee / 7 T i e ' e . “LongF live the great American Republic.”—President Poincare of rance. “The defeat of Germany will allow all free nations to celebrate at last the independence of the world.”—Marshal Joffre. - “In this great struggle we have got to win.” Former Speaker Joseph G. Cannon. : . “Great Britain and ‘Ameriea will never loosen this new and splendid bond of inter-relationship.”—Nicholas Mwrray Butler. “He who proposes peace now either does not see the stake for which the Allies are fighting, or wishes the German military autoc racy still to control the destinies of all of us as to peace or war.”—l ormer President William H. Taft. ' “The American soldier is the worthy inheritor of the finest tradi tions of American arms, a credit to those who bore him, an honor to the nation he represents, and the last and best h:r that civilization shall not fail in her struggle to establish the might of right.”—Danmiel A. Poling in the Outlook. - “The land of Garibaldi is proud to shake the hand tendered to her " by the land of Washington.”—Count V. Macchi de Cellere, Ital tan Ambassador to the United States. “We will fight until right has been restored and Alsace-Lorraine ~ becomes French territory again.”—An American private’s ; pledge to the people of Alsace. | “Paradoxical as it may seem, the more we prepare for a long war | the shorter the war will be.”—James Gerard, former American Ambassador to Berlin. i ' disregard of life that is very appeal ing. lam sure it is not a pose with them. It cannot be assumed, because they have been through the flery fur nace of war. > There is a fine little chap. among the French soldiers. He used to live in this country and was employed in a book publishing house when F'rance called her sons home. He went among the very first and he has been in a number of the great battles of the war. He is just an enlisted man, and I can talk to him. The other night he was wandering about the company street and I had a long chat with him. I told him of the killing of my little cousin. He was silent for a moment and then said, “Be glad it wasn’t your ittle daughter, or your little sister.” There was something so wistful in his tone that I knew the tragedy of it all had come closer to him than it had to me. After a few moments he told me the story. His sister and a girl friend had been spending their vaca tion in France. They were caught in the war zone., One day he received a letter from her. It was while he was Over There. She told him she would never see him again. Officers of a Prussian regiment had taken her— as one of the spoils. of the regiment, and when they had used her they had passed her on to the enlisted men. He said she told him the story with out giving any detail, but telling enough so that he could understand the rest. As gently as I could I asked him what had become of her.' He replied, “She has killed herself. lam sure of that.” I did not say anything and he add ed, “There are many things worse than death, you know.” I say that at first I did not think ‘much about the stories that had been told. Horrible stories are told about all wars and I have been led to be lieve that, in the heat of battle men will do things they would never think of doing when their brute natures are not aroused. I did not believe it at first when men told me that the ‘atrocities of the Germans were part of the military plan of the Kaiser's| advisers. In the face of the evidence that confronts you, if you will only| ‘heed it, you cannot but be convinced. | Father wrote that the Huns gave no| warning as they went over the town where my little cousin was killed.| They just dropped bombs from the|! sky and ruined everything that came within their path until they were| driven off. | It is not so long since that my old | pastor preached on the humnnizing' of warfare and said that one of the evidences of the growth of this world towards righteousness was that atroc ities were no longer committed. It must have been a rude awakening for him as he read of some of the things that the Germans have done; but 1 remember that he preached that this war was just as Holy as the Crusades. It is clear to me now that we are using force to fight force. It is clear that we at least have the right orr our side and I must say that if force is the only agency we can apply we must do the best we have with the tools we have. One becomes something of a phi. losopher as one lives the life of the army. The mind is vers.ctive when the body has become accustomed to i} Yo e oTR ; ‘. : “ . .J? ’ ] W N\" : . ‘1 i A > ol v ¥ Y £ 3 | A g !" iy ee ¥ '!'t';)"'¥7 BUO 1Y G Ul \ BB st 2 “;?V ‘ 3, %, :"/ il \ f il 7./d T j ) T f 1 There is a fine little chap ameng the French soldiers. the routine of the drill, for your mus cles perform their functions without any direction and your mind is free to think. When I was a little chap Father used to tell me that there were more students of politics on the cobblers’ benches than in our legislative halls and he explained it by saying that the cobblers could sit and think as they worked. The soldier, when he is doing the things he has been trained to do can think as he stands—and I am thinking and thinking hard. Tonight 'I wrote Father. It was not a lukewarm letter.” It was just as indignant as kis and I told him that I, if 1 were spared to do it, would try to avenge my little cousin. I shall try to write to Mary Blair tomorrow ’.ight—and I think she will be glad to get my letter. T i 2 / "v: [ O \\?:\,\ 6: . | ’)‘l3 1 ‘f;”’; P 4 2. el S pr" B e g Vo - B s e pitdh Y CRTALE /( ST t" q : i!, m\g{ TR L N B !'f \y/k ; i 3 o > ) § b g % - A RLA g“‘* [ heult” g ~ o /////"l 7 ~f ik, /,’,, W o} X /'f_ = 7 y B sy 4 S 3 A ST Gz, & %;‘Z;/‘:,_~ fig h ’ly i G %, g - g'@' ,';,b 4 A- ) . "/'/ / & .