Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1904 — OUR AUXILIARY ARMY. [ARTICLE]

OUR AUXILIARY ARMY.

ICxtensivc Measures Being Taken to Whip the Militia Fnt > Shape. Twenty new'military attaches have just been appointed by the President to serve at the.capitals of as many States and Territories. Their business will be to instruct our new auxiliary army, which has been created by act of Con-”' gress, and to see that it is brought up to a maximum degree of idliciency for war. This army will number about 125,000, and will prove a powerful auxiliary force in case of trouble with a foreign power. Congress Ims decreed that within four years from the present date the entire force must be organized, disciplined and equipped in all respects exactly like our regular troops, ami $2,000,<100 has been made at once available for the purchase and manufacture of a first installment of the requisite ritles ami other material. By the same legislative enactment the great body of fighting men thus brought under direct Federal supervision, though it will continue to be known as the "militia” of the States and Territories, is transformed actually into a provisional branch of the regular unity of the United States.

It is a wholly novel departure. The militia of the country is no longer to l>e heterogeneous congeries of more or less defectively trained bodies of citizen soldiery, but a thoroughly drilled and well instructed army, provided with the best obtainable weapons ami equipments, and in readiness at any time hvtnke the field at a day’s notice, in response to a summons by the President. In time of peace the organizations composing this army are controlled by "the States ami Territories. but in case of war they will be immediately available us part of the Federal forces. The new army which Congress thus places nt the service of the country consists of 107.422 enlisted men and 9,120 commissioned officers. With a view to transformin'* tMj great mass of troops into a complete aud efficient whole, the militin of all the Stales nnd Territories has been placed under the direct supervision and general management of the War Department. Authority over the citizen soldiery has not been taken away from the Governors of the States, but it is to be trained under the Federal ey4, provided with arms and equipments, by the government, and kept continually under watch in order to be sure that every regiment and com* pany is in condition at any minnte to take ths field «