National reserve corps of engineers

Last spring the suggestion was made that the national engineering societies offer to assist the War Department in the formation of an engineer reserve in the United States Army. The suggestion was brought to the attention of some of the officers of the Army who commended it and confirmed the belief that the need of such a reserve was a real one; that the European War had distinctly shown that engineers in time of war are required on a scale never before realized and of great varieties of experience. In our own army no adequate provision is made for great numbers of engineers, for although the corps of engineers is composed of men of the very highest professional proficiency in certain lines it is greatly short of the numerical strength that would be immediately required.