As Reported in the 3 May 1917 Issue of the Courier Democrat
WAR NEWS.
Drew McLaughlin: I have been
converted to the idea of compulsory
military training by selective draft.
For a time I thought volunteers
should be called. The Company F.
recruiting office is in The World
building. I have noticed that the
Hiawatha young men are not respond-
ing to the call for volunteers. Each
seems willing to let the other do the
patriotic duty. The large number of
slackers right in Hiawatha con-
vinced me that the only fair way to
secure fighting men is by having uni-
versal service with selective draft.
Then the service is equally distrib-
uted.
Seneca is the most patriotic town
in Nemaha County. There is no ques-
tion about that. The real test of
patriotism is the number of young
men who are willing to bear arms to
defend their country’s honor. It is no
trick to stand around and wave a
flag and tell what you think the gov-
ernment ought to do with the Kaiser.
Any mut can do that. The real fellow
is the one who hunts out a recruiting
station and says “Uncle Sam, old boy,
I’m with you.”
Arthur Morse, day operator at the
depot, is thinking of filing an applica-
tion with the department as a wire-
less recruit.
Lon Britt of Atchison has enlisted
in Co. F. National Guard at Hia-
watha.
The active co-ordination of the med-
ical resources of Kansas is being
worked out by the Kansas branch of
the Counsel of National Defense. Dr.
George M. Gray of the Kansas side
says 1,200 physicians in the state
are available from the standpoint of
army service. The committee has
selected Dr. Hugh Wilk-
inson, a Kansas side surgeon, and
Dr. J. R. Langworthy of Leaven-
worth, to examine all physicians in
the state who are ready to join the
medical corps. The two physicians
already hold commissions in the regu-
lar army medical reserve corps. Dr.
Gray said the two examining physi-
cians would visit all the larger coun-
ties in the state in the next few
weeks. Eleven other physicians in
Kansas beside the two above-named
are officers in the reserve corps. This
list includes Dr. W. S. Henschle of
Corning, former health officer. The
foregoing excerpts are from the Sun-
day Star. Dr. Wilkinson was in Sen-
eca Sunday and Monday.
A branch of the Women’s Division
of the Navy League has recently been
organized in Kansas City. The Nat-
ional Navy League with headquarters
in Washington, D.C. is an associa-
tion that wants to keep war out of
the United States and believes that
the surest way to do so is to maintain
a navy so strong that no nation can
get across the sea to attack us. It
has no connection with any business
or political organization. Former
Seneca ladies are connected with two
of these organizations. Mrs. O. H.
Mack of Reno, Nevada, is state presi-
dent of the Nevada branch and Miss
Jennie M. Fisher of Kansas City is a
member of the board of directors of
the Kansas City Navy League. The
Kansas City members pay dues of
$1.00. The branch will provide a
knitted suit consisting of a knitted
sweater, scarf and wristlets for 500
sailors. Headquarters are maintain-
ed at the Y.W.C.A. building where
teachers are employed to instruct in
knitting.
John Crandall and Claude Rucker
went to Manhattan Saturday and en-
listed in the Coast Artillery. W. C.
Alstrom, commercial instructor in the
Seneca High School accompanied
them but did not make application.
The members of the Board of Educa-
tion are unwilling to release him from
his contract as there are but three
more weeks of school. Burdette Nash
enlisted in the Coast Artillery a few
days previous.
Frank Winkler who is working in
the oil fields at Augusta and John Le-
Roy of the Sperling jewelry store
have enlisted in Battery B. at Law-
rence. Both will stick to their jobs
until they are called.
