The Portland daily press., 1877-08-09
Regulars Better than Militia Against q
1e - Moh

The New York Nation makes the following
observation upon the relative order of regulars
and militia in conflict with rioters:
Another illusion which riots have dispelled
Is that the means provided by the several states
for the protection of life and property in the
shape of police and militia, are at all adequate.
Riots on the scale on which they have taken
place during the past fortnight put almost as
much strain on the nerves and on the disci-
pline OF the force called on to suppress them as
the operations of regular warfare. A Lawful
enemy forms an organization which keeps
itself in a defined position, and its attacks are
controlled by rules with which men are more or
less familiar and dictated by motives which
can besguessed, and the force of which can be-
weighed. A mob. on the other hand, is essen.
TALLY irrational, and its conduct has all the fit
fulness and incomprehensibility of that of
wild beast, and is just as merciless and de-
structive. 1t requires, therefore, to be met by
coolness and cohesiveness, and presence Of
mind, which are not often called for in actual
campaigning. Nothing can supply these
things but the habit of obedience-not simply
intellectual readiness to obey, as part Of
contract, but the habitual readiness
to obey particular man, produced by obeying
him every day on all sorts of small matters,
and the familiarity with his person and char
acter which results from living under his or
ders. This regular troops have; this even the
best militia has not and cannot have. The con-
sequence is that q militia regiment no matter
how well drilled, when it finds itself acting
against mob, and the temper of the men be-
gins to be tried By missiles and insults loses
very rapidly its sense of organization. The
company and the regiment and the officers fade
from the private's view, and he becomes in his
own eyes an individual man, at whom q fellow
on the, sidewalk is throwing brckbats; so he
gratifies his rage and provides for his personal
safety by taking shot at him. The mob, on
its side, takes more or less the same view of the
force; that is, it believes it has got before il
body very much like itself, although armed aud
uniformed, and does not believe in its discipline
and cohesiveness, and does believe it Can dis
solve it by vigorous pelting or series of single
combats. or by appeals to the sympathies of
the men. Regulars, on the other hand, 1t
knows to be machine-the most terrible of all
the machines invented by man, by which the
wills of a thousand are welded, even unto
death, by the will of one. and which knows
nothing of single shots, which feels every blow
through its whole mass, and when it strikes
strikes like the fail of destiny, without re-
morse or pity or misgiving The consequence
is that many of the horrors and aggravations of
m0b-risines come from the unsteadi ness of
militia. Killing by militia is apt to rouse
thirst for vengeance, like the killing in street
fight, while volley from regulars has the ter
rors of legal execution. OF course there are
militia regiments which are exceptions to this
rule, and several during the late troubles have
rendered inestimable service; but they are not
ia ha rallied ON for seriaus enaeronoie5, 5usota
We trust every sensible man now sees are
among the contingencies of American life.