Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 140, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1914 — NATIONAL GUARD FORGES OF UNITED STATES ARE IN GOOD CONDITION [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NATIONAL GUARD FORGES OF UNITED STATES ARE IN GOOD CONDITION

Better Trained and Equipped Than Ever Before. BUT STILL FAR FROM PERFECT In Case of War With Mexico It Will Require Some “Brushing Up” to Fit State Troops to Take Field With Regulars.

By EDWARD B. CLARK.

Washington.—When the cloud came into the sky suggestive of war with Mexicd, the first thought of pie military authorities concerned itself naturally with the preparedness of the regular army. The second thought was directed to the preparedness of the National Guard, but in a way the second thought was graver than the first, for in a war which assumes great proportions volunteer organizations must make up the major part of the armies in the field. The National Guard'forces of the states of the Union are better trained, better organized and better equipped today than they ever were before, but they are still far from a state of perfect readiness for war. From the day of the birth of the first rumor of prob-

able trouble with Mexico, the American volunteer spirit has been manifesting itself. Enlistments in the National Guard have increased and it can be said that if the occasion demand, the National Guard troops can be taken into the service of the United States quickly, and in such a condition of comparative preparedness that there need be no great delay in sending them into the field with the men of the regulars. Ever since the passage by congress ■ of the bill introduced by Senator Dick ”, of Ohio, some years ago, and under the active operation of the resulting law, the National Guardsmen have progressed in organization, in efficiency and in equipment. In the war department there is a division of militia affairs whose chief is Brig. Gen. Albert L. Mills, a tried soldier, and a medal of honor man decorated for conspicuous personal gallantry on the field of battle in Cuba. The first assistant to General Mills is Lieut. Col. Harry C. Hale of the Seventeenth infantry, who has had hard field service, including three tours of duty in the Philippines, and who is known as one of the closest students of military affairs generally that the army holds. Ever since its organization the division of military affairs has striven to bring the regulars and the National Guard closer together in spirit and in efficiency of service. Of course, it Is recognized that It Is Impossible to turn a civilian into a regular over night, and that it is Also impossible to do it in years under the conditions of training which naturally must attend the regime of the guard. The guardsmen drill only once a week. They go into camp only once a year, and at the best they can get but the first lessons of the regular service life. As it Is, however, by means of the help which the federal government has given and through the Increased interest . among the guardsmen, the state soldiers are today fitter probably than ever before to enter active service. In round numbers, there are 120,000 National Guardsmen in the United States, 9,000 officers and 111,000' enlisted men. On the wall of the main office of the division of military affairs Washington is a huge map of the United States. This map is "carded,” state by state, each card showing the strength of each arm of the service in every state of the Union. Elsewhere in the office are the reports which show efficiency. Regular army officers pass judgment upon the military standing, all things considered, of the different organisations of the guard. Everything pertaining to the efficiency of the state troops Is known to the war department authorities In Washof this hat first made. National I Into 16 lars form e guardsi. In a Guard Is nation is

to the front unquestionably they will go in divisions, but the advance creation of these divisions has been difficult, owing to the limited control of the federal government in the premises, the varying conditions obtaining in the different states, "the fact that in the general case several states compose a single divisional district,” and the fact, as the current report of the chief of the military division says, that no regular army officers have been available for working on the problem. The division formation, however, unquestionably will be the formation of the National Guard for tactical purposes in case they are ordered into the field. * As has been said, the regular army forms the first four divisions. The Fifth division, geographically speaking, Includes the New England states. The other divisions in order and the states whose troops will go to form their units are: Sixth, New York; Seventh, Pennsylvania; Eighth, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey; Ninth, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina; Tenth, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky; Eleventh, Michigan and Ohio; Twelfth, Indiana and Illinois; Thirteenth, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, lowa and Wisconsin; Fourteenth, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska; Fifteenth, Louisiana, •Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona; Sixteenth, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. Under a law recently passed by congress and approved by the president, it will be easier.to take the National Guardsmen of the different states into volunteer service than ever before. If three-fourths of the members of a state* regiment express their willingness to enlist theiorganization at once can be sworn into the volunteer service, and the deficiency of enlisted men, if any, can be made up by volunteers from outside of the organization. It will be seen from the table given of the twelve militia divisions that the brigades and regiments forming one division will be drawn from neighboring states, thus in a great measure keeping up not only the traditions of state pride, but of that pride which in a good sense can be called sectional. This sort of feeling is recognized as being proper, and as a stimulant to high endeavor. The National Guard of every state in the Union today is armed with the latest model of Springfield rifle and carbine for the infantry and cavalry, and with the latest type of field guns for the artillery. The equipment of the other branches, the engineer, signal and sanitary troops, is also that of the regular service. Comparisons, as a saying which has gone Into the class of the bromidic has it, are odious, anti they also are frequently invidious, but the National Guardsmen of some of the states are in far better trim for the field than are their brothers of other states. Once in the sevice, however, with the example which the regulars set for them, with the strengthening of their endurance qualities by the open air and the exercise and with the discipline which in the service rigidly is enforced, it ought not to take long to bring the more backward of the regiments nearly abreast of the others in efficiency and to make the guardsmen division units in strength as they are units in organization. A division is the smallest military unit containing all arms .of the service and all branches of the staff. As the chief of the division of militia affairs puts it, “It is the smallest military ‘tool box’ and the smallest unit capable of independent action. A large force could not well be administered.

supplied or fought unless so organized.” It is this view of the military authorities that led to the division of the militia into divisions. From the experience of all the nations that ever engaged in warfare it is known approximately the proportions which the different arms in each division should bear to one another. There is a great variation in these proportions in the divisions of the organized militia. No two are alike and not a single one is complete, "nor is there any immediate prospect of a single complete division with the exception of the Sixth,” which will be drawn from the state of New York' alone. The deficiency in the National Guard is most markedly apparent in field artillery. The division of militia affairs has bent every effort to create the missing troops and met at first with only slight success. The creation f ii ■ i'll' i ■ jl* (mi • ‘ ’ ai i tin 1 • ■*

r of auxiliary troops, It is said, is of vitat ffnportance to the Union and it la also held that until all these divisions are made complete, each containing all arms in their proper proportion, a large part of the efficiency of the -socalled units would be sacrificed in a campaign. War finally brings organization up to its perfected form for material and men must be supplied. The army, and with it the militia, is far better prepared today to go Into the field than it was at the opening of the Spanish war. That war taught lessons which were well learned, but even with the regular army things are not perfect The general condition is due largely to the refusal of congress to listen to the appeals for money necessary tq keep the regular service up to the standard, and to the indifference of the states to the welfare of their National Guard. Law-making bodies always seem obsessed with the thought that war never is again to come. Then war comes. In the twelve militia divisions there is an excess of infantry. Take as an example Twelfth Division which com prises the troops of Illinois and Indiana. Here there is an excess of three regiments of infantry over the normal number of infantrymen required. There is a deficiency, however, of three troops of cavalry, six

batteries of field artillery, two companies of engineers, two companies of signal troops, three ambulance companies, and there are lacking ammunition, supply and pack train forces. With the three excess regiments of infantry to draw from it would be possible to make up the shortage in other arms by proper transfers, but of course there would be delay In fitting and training infantrymen for their new duties. There is an excess of Infantrymen in virtually all of the militia divisions, and readjustments and reassignments and additional equipment would be necessary to balance each division properly and to send it into the field as a perfected unit. It is true that if the military preparedness of the country as a whole had been considered by the state authorities in the formation of their National Guards, the condition of excess in some branches and deficiencies in other branches would not obtain. The state, however, in the past has looked more perhaps to the wishes of the men forming organizations than it has to the military exigencies of some national crisis. The day of readjustment eventually will come. It is certain to come if we have war, an<J it is almost certain to come if we have peace, because the officers of regulars and the officers of the Guard together are working to this great end of unification and efficiency. If the United States gets into a war of great proportions there will be more National Guardsmen In the field than regulars. The volunteers are the fighting resource of every nation. The guard is in a better condition today than it ever has been before, but it is nothing like perfect In its organization. The lessons of the -Spanish war, added to those of the present day, it seems are likely to result In making perfect that order of things military to effect which it has been for years the earnest effort of the Officers of the division of militia affairs of the war department of the United States.

On the Parade Ground.

New York State Cavalry Troop.

Militiamen Taking Lessons in Skirmish Firing.