Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 201, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1916 — Guard Will Stay On Duty While Danger Lasts. [ARTICLE]

Guard Will Stay On Duty While Danger Lasts.

The national guard will be retained on the border until it can be Withdrawn without endangering American lives and property. Secretary Baker so declared the administration’s policy Monday in answering a score of letters from many parts of the country complaining that the state troops were being held in service after the emergency for which they were called apparently had passed. In general, the complainants, whose names were withheld, allege that border service was entailing loss financially on militiamen and hardships on their families. The secretary replied to all those seeming to merit attention. By it% presence on the border, he wrote to one, the guard is “winning bloodless victories daily.” He declared that American residents along the international line were enjoying a peace and security they could not know when the military forces were not protecting them. The department appreciates, Mr. Baker said in another letter, the fact that a call for military service upon militia organiaztions must inevitably present causes for hardship. The emergency, however which required this call for militia, was one of a grave character, affecting the safety of lives of citizens of the United States —men, woman and children. So soon as a state of order on the border justifies it these troops will be returned to their homes, he wrote. “In the meantime it is not possible for the department to say how soon a situation may arise, although the Mexicans situation is one of increasing hopefulness.”