"We shall urge most strongly that with a three months' notice and preparation, the merits of each individual applicant may be passed on more satisfactorily, and the army authorities themselves will be better able to select the successful candidates and give them a reasonable notice in order that they may wind up their affairs, preparatory to entering into active service."
COTTON TO FOIL U-BOATS
Congress Would Lend Ships Will Help to Destroy Torpedoes and Dry-Menace.
WASHINGTON, May 11.? Representative Bellin, of Alabama, has informed Secretary Paine that cotton hales will help destroy the submarine crisis. He would line the sides of ships with them. "A ship loaded with cotton will not sink," he declared.
This explanation of his plan is made by Mr. Bellin:
"Cortex, stuffed cotton in the jackets of his soldiers to protect their bodies from the arrows of the Indians, Jackson won the battle at New Orleans by using cotton hales, and we, by using cotton hales in the body of our merchant ships, can defy the submarines, feed the allies, and win this war against Germany. We can build a merchant ship that will no safely through the war, in spite of submarines. This can be done by building at the waterline a strong, thick watertight floor. Meanwhile, this line in the body of the ship"  Line the sides and bottom with bales of cotton. Let them in side by side and end to end as you would lay brick for paving purposes. Then have a network of strong steel chains over and around these layers of cotton hales. 