SIGNAL CORPS ACTIVE

The work of the Signal Reserve Corps at the University will commence Monday when a meeting for all men interested in this branch of the service will be held in the Cruft Laboratory at 7.30 o'clock. Captain C. E. Russell of the United States Signal Corps, who has been detailed by the Eastern Department to recruit a reserve battalion of the Signal Corps, will speak and explain in full the plans made for the corps at the University. It is planned to have one course of classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights, especially for members of the University, and another group on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights composed primarily of men outside the University. There will probably be about 90 men in each section and five instructors under Captain Russell will have charge of the men. From 7.45 to 9 o'clock a lecture will be given by one of the staff of instruction on the theory of wireless, which will be followed by questions from members of the class. From 9 to 10 o'clock code practice will be held for the inexperienced men and an advanced class will also be held in code work. A few men will be given practice with night or "blinker" lights.

May Form Company Here.

If 50 men enlist from the University in the Signal Corps, Captain Russell intends to form a company and hold regular drill. In connection with these plans an official statement has been made from the office of the R. O. T. C. at the University that members of the R. O. T. C. who are enlisted or enlist in the Signal Corps may remain in the R. O. T. C. until the Signal Corps is called out for active Federal service. When the Corps is called out the members will leave for some training camp outside of Cambridge, where they will go into intensive training. As two-thirds of the men in the Signal Corps of the army are mounted, men intending to enlist in the Reserve Corps will have an added advantage if they are able to ride a horse or drive an automobile.

Since there will be a shortage of men in this department of the army, it is extremely likely that members of the new corps who show special aptitude to the work will receive a noncommissioned rating soon after the corps goes into camp. In the regular Signal Corps there are three officers to five privates.

Captain Russell has been active in establishing units at several New England colleges. Large groups have started work at Tufts and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and at Dartmouth a company of 50 men have started the regular signal work course and in addition are drilling regularly. Captain Russell, who has general charge of the new corps, apparently the only one yet organized in the country, has had 31 months of actual fighting, having seen service both at Peking during the Boxer Rebellion and in the Philippines, being therefore especially fitted for the work of organizing a signal reserve corps in New England. Over 400 men have enlisted so far, all of whom had practical experience, with the exception of the college men entered in the corps.

The Signal Reserve Corps is one of the best branches of the service for men to enter, for in rank it stands next to the Engineer Corps, and its work is most important and necessary to the nation in time of war. The requirements for commissions in this reserve are very high, but the only requirements for the non-commissioned are that the applicant be a citizen of the United States, between the ages of 18 and 45 years. A physical examination, such as is given for entrance to the R. O. T. C., will also be required for entrance to the Signal Corps.

The meeting Monday is open to all members of the University who are interested in radio work, or who are considering the Signal Corps as a means of serving the country. The regular meeting will begin at 7.30 o'clock, but any men who are in doubt as to the nature of the work of the corps or the qualifications for admittance are urged to come out at 7.15 o'clock, when all such questions will be answered. It is also essential for all men who intend to join this branch of the service to report tonight, as their entry into the course will be more difficult after the meetings are started