Milsurp After Hours

Old Teddy Roosevelt wants authorization to raise an army of volunteers to lead to France to take on the Hun like he did in Cuba. In the meantime he is making speeches. He is all enthused with the prospect of war as a national endeavor.

Recommending all those rich sons lying down together with farmers sons would be taken a little differently nowadays I'd Imagine. And all joining the "Rainbow" division too I guess. But those were different times.

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Cartoon directed at volunteer over draft proposals to quickly build a two million man Army plus a much larger Navy and Marine Corp. The US had already ballyhooed the commitment of seven billion dollars for disposal for the war and expected to raise more where that came from by taxes. Raising troops by asking for volunteers seemed to the cartoonist about as dumb as asking for donations to pay for the war would be.

Not all in Congressmen agreed.

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Just saw some videos on U Tube about the WW I narrow gauge railways and here is a link to the next WW I event.
Lots of nice working gear: a tank, a steam lorry, RR Armoured car, petrol Simplex locomotives as well as steam ones and rolling stock.

http://www.ww1-event.org/

President Wilson is anticipating new laws to censor war news. He is noble of course, like all self anointed heros,...and suggests he is against overruling the first amendment when it comes to himself. Wonder what he would think of the current Wikileaks situation? Punishing telling the truth about deeds done in the dark was what the bill was about then. And, even down to today, it's ok to say anything about the President, no matter how insulting or derogatory, but any disclosure of what the CIA, or other secret agency, does in the dark that may impinge on citizens fourth amendment rights is considered criminal.

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The House passes the draft bill by a score of 279 to 98. The Senate will surely follow suit with a few adjustments...like the age group to be drafted narrowed and they may or may not agree that soldiers should not be allowed to drink intoxicating beverages as some in the House proposed. Teddy Roosevelt, not one to need drafting gives speeches. He would eventually send four sons to the war. One of them, Quentin, would die fighting it. All of Teddy's sons were gung ho like their dad. All were brave... some crazy brave. One General Patton observed as "brave" but "not a soldier".

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Senate goes along with the draft bill...but wants the age limits reduced to 21 to 27. The Senate debated the notion that no one in uniform should be able to drink intoxicating beverages. Then someone decided to add an amendment that no member of Congress should be able to take a drink either. Well... you know how this turned out.

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Since we were better geared up to produce P14 Enfields than we were Springfields.... the model M1917 became the main battle rifle by changing the British design to 30.06 chambering. One of the benefits of being "neutral" before the war.

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US is going overboard on its new assumed responsibility in feeding the world during the war crisis. The prohibitionists are for banning alcohol as an unnecessary product of grain production that could otherwise be used as food. Housewives are seriously working on conserving food of all sorts as their patriotic duty. Congressmen are proposing laws to prevent service men from obtaining alcohol in any form. The brewers strike back as best they can.

Those figures being the case it makes you wonder why we drink it at all