St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-10-25
THE NATIONAL GUARD
Il Minnesota Muddle-Ihe Interesting Pa



ticsliars.
milwaukee Sunday Telegraph, 10th.i
Rather an odd complication has arisen in
the national guard of sister state. 1t seems
that while in camp last summer the colonel
of the LIST regiment received notification that
the governor would review his command on
certain day. The hour fixed was 1880 p.
IN, and the adjutant general from his Office
in st. Paul sent letter to the colonel saying
briefly that the time must be changed and
without the customary Shy order of the COM
mander-in-c hief,' signed it simply as adju-
tant general. The colonel received the let
ter but did not order II change OF programme
and the adjutant general, finding that his
first missive was Intellectual, took an ordinary
business card and wrote on the back of it
mandate somewhat as follows:
"Colonel w. B. Bend, the review must
come off at 5 p. m, or not at all.
G. NJ. MCCARTHY.
Adjutant General.
This card was handed the colonel, who tore
it up in the preernce of his officers, and de-
clared it to be an impertiuencc. The adjutant
general preferred charges. The governor
announced that it was impracticable TO con-
vene court martial to try Colonel Bend, hut
as substitute he prepared a gubernatorial
review of the case and administered a long
reprimand to the offending colonel which be
directs to be read to the entire National
Guard of the state. The governor sustains
the action of his chief of staff and holds that
the line officer was entirely in the wrong.
Na,r- 30 tr1x, Al.
justify interference from outside, but with
the interests of the entire National Guard at
heart the Sunday Telegraph feels constrained
to point out some singular features in this
case, and while it cannot and will not de-
fend the action of Colonel Bend, who should
have set better example of cheerful COM
pliance with the expressed wishes of his COM
mander-in-chef, it must express its entire
disapprobation of the methods, or lack of
methods displayed by Minnesota's adjutant
general.
Chief of staff and the senior officer in rank
in the state forces, the adjutant general, has
OF himself, no authority whatsoever 10 issue
orders to the line officers. He is the mouth
piece of the governor and his orders can
only have weight when his signature follows
the all-powerful ''by order of the command
er-in-chief and for him TO send as he cid in
this case two orders to Colonel Bend, omit
ting this formula entirely, and virtually as
serting himself as the commanding officer,
was military improperly Of the first order.
If any man should be an example of the
propreties, courtesies and etiquette of mill
tary life, the adjutaut general is the man,
and General McCarthy's course in the first
en- pier of this controversy is anything but
commendable.
l. II - -, L.
first order the adjutant general paid the col
onel the delicate compliment of expressing
as wish what he could have ordered as u
right, aud that the mere omission of the or
der "by order of, ETC., so transformed the
communication from the imperative into the
courteous that the colonel ought to nave been
tickled-not affronted-This is ingenious but
lacks military sense. If this were sound
reasoning the colonel should have been over
whelmed with qualification on receiving a
curt pencilled note scrawled on the back of
somebody's businiss card telling him that he
must change his programme at once or the
play should not come off eff the colonel
doubted the genuineness of the Signature
says the governor, she could have satisfied
himself by questioning the orderly who
brou ght the note :" This too strikes us as
the converse of military method. 1t might
be confirmation strong as holy writ to some
colonies to be assure by a private soldier
or a strange messenger that the adjutant
general really wrote that himself, but in the
regular service no colonel could be induced
to believe that the adjutanT general would
send him such a thing. or so far forget him
self, if the orderly were to swear to it on
slack OF bibles. There is something singu-
lar and pitifully weak about this part of the
governors argument. In fact it looks
very much as though the adjutant general
had put his foot in 1t but that his chief felt
bound to put him through at any cost.
1t sometimes happens that the adjutant
generally Is conferred as a reward for poll IT,
cal service rendered and that an obscure
and uneducated man leaps at once into
position Of prominence over old and tried
soldiers. We do notmean to say that such is
the case here because We have no informa-
ton on the subject, but had a court martial
been practicable we doubt whether dozen
line or staff-officers would have been found
TO take the same views entered by the gov
ernor in sustaining General Mccarthy
throughout and, as he deemed a court I'M
practicable, we doubt still more the wisdom
or justice of the governors assumption of
court martial function in trying and sent
encing Colonel Bend and then Furnishing
him by the publication Of reprimand to be
read to every command in the state. This
is an humiliation to deserving though
probably erring officer, and a triumph to an
adjutaht general whose conduct OF military
affairs is so far from faultless as to deserve
stern censure.