Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1902 — FOR A GREATER MILITIA. [ARTICLE]

FOR A GREATER MILITIA.

National Guard Experts Indorse Bill Before Congress. Unanimous support is given by prominent officers of the National Guard in Illinois, Wisconsin, lowa, Michigan and Indiana to the bill recently introduced in Congress for increasing the efficacy of the militia. The citizen-soldiers say the biU (> if it becomes a law, is bound to improve the service, at the same time placing at the command of the federal government a reserve force capable of meet- . ing all emergencies. | Since the Spanish-American war there ■ practically has been a complete reorganization of the National Guard in the five States named, and the guard now is on the same basis as that governing the reg- * ular array. A consequent marked im- ] provement has been the result, yet it is ; admitted that there are limitations which ! the State governments cannot hope to ’ overcome without the aid of the general government. First in importance of the needs of the National Guard, which the bill is designed to fill is the lack of equipment in arms and stores. National Guard officers who are conversant with the condition of the troops in their respective States particularly approve that section of the bill which provides the National Guard with the regular army pattern smokeless powder magazine rifles and carbines. The officers say this need was made clear during the Spanish-American war. Briefly, the bill now before Congress provides for the recognition of the National Guard as the second line after the regular army, either ns National Guard or volunteers, as organized; gives the Guardsmen whose organization does not go to the front as volunteers for the period of the war the chance to go as individuals: arms the Guard with the latest pattern of rifle; gives officers the opportunity of regular army instruction, and examination, and provides for field maneuvers under service conditions with or without regular troops, free of cost to the several States or individuals. Officers of the National Guard in the States of the middle West see in the bill a remedy for all the defects now besetting the military system. They declare that it will raise the National Guard to the level of an efficient and useful body of citizen-soldiery. This will be in marked contrast, they say. with the indefinite position as a military force heretofore occupied by the National Guard.