The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-06-26
THE MILITIA MUST Err.

| 1t Is hundred years since congress, IN
the spring of 1872, passed the first gen.
eral militia act, which still remains
on the statute book with its obso-
lete mandates impossible to execute. This
law enjoined every able-bodied male citi-
zen between Is and 45 years of age, en-
rolled by his captain, to keep himself pro-
vided with q ''good musket or frelock. of
bore sufficient for balls of the eighteenth
| part of pound" two spare 6ints and
twenty-four cartridges, or else with "a
| good rifle, shot pouch, powder horn, TWEEN
| ty balls and a quarter of pound Of pow
der" This law, however, was never car
| ried out. Two years after its adoption
| bill was reported for organizing select
corps of militia, to be armed and equipped
! by the general government and to be paid
while serving in annual camps of instruc-
ton.
This was good measure and had 1t
| been enacted we would have had genuine
national militia of an effective character.
| This bill, however failed to become law,
but on April %. 1908. law was passed
making an appropriation of 10000 an
nually to provide arms and equipments for
the militia, a far more generous provision
for those days of small population than is
made by congress today. Madison and
Jefferson in vain year after year urged a
reform of our military system, "a separa-
| ton of the more active part from that
which is less SO, that we may draw from it
when necessary, an efficient corps, fit for
real and active service, and to be called to
| it in regular rotation. Madison also
proposed annual camps of instruction for
| the commissioned and non-commissioned
officers. In 1916 Secretary of War Graham.
by direction of congress, prepared new
plan. 1t divided the militia into
three classes, according to ages, Of
which the two younger were to as
| semble in annual camps of instruction.
Congressman Harrison, of Ohio, afterward
president, proposed as substitute mill
tary drill for all the schools, and revived
Madison's plan of annually instructing
officers and non-commissioned officers in
camp. He estimated that the cost to the
government would be 81 800, 900 year. In
1926 a board, on which Scott and Zachary
Taylor were prominent, suggested rs
substitute a brigade of militia in each con-
gress district, to be instructed In camps
for ten days each year, and paid for their
time and expenses. Secretary of War
Poinsett, in 1910, proposed the creation of
100000 active militia, apportioned among
the states, each of which could keep its
quota filled either by voluntary enlistment
or draft. One-fourth would go out of SER
vice annually into the reserve, while the
president could put them in camps under
pay for a month annually. In 1916 still
| another plan was reported, that of main
tanning in each state an active militia be-
tween 2i and 80 years of age, whose officers
should be instructed annually in camp by
the general government.
BY this time volunteer and state militia
organizations began to spring up all over
the Union. and after the Mexican war the
state volunteer system grew so rapidly as
to put an end to the long series of efforts
| to form a national militia, congress prac-
| ticaily accepting it az a substitute This
volunteer system carried US through the
| civil war of 1S6l-lS65, and its success has
| been fatal to all efforts to revive the old
| idea of a select federal militia. The value
| of a federal militia is no longer obvious TO
| the ordinary mind, because the state forces
| have greatly improved, rifle practice and
excellent camps of instruction having
! done great work for them. The principal
/ service rendered by congress during the
! last twenty years has been its compar-
| atively recent increase of the an
nual militia appropriation to $780,
| coo, which only doubles the orig
inal appropriation of Jefferson s
day made eighty-four years ago. This APP
preparation ought to be increased to at
least $1,000. 900. for it is of great value to
states that otherwise would neglect their
| militia.
| The state troops are Invaluable for local
aid IN case of riots, As IS shown by the
record of Pennsylvania. In the mining
! troubles Of ISL she had out / 900 men
! from April to May 2i at cost of $SS, 600;
| in the lumber troubles Of 1872. 400 men
| from July - TO August l, at a cost OF Sl5,-
600; in the railroad troubles Of 1878, 500
| lDFu IOi aObtk SIN Atf - ~ u SoSN Va So,
| coo; in the mining troubles of 1870, / 500
men from April - May Is and June ) 10
! June - a. cost Of $4,000; in the riots
! of 1877, no fewer than 9 I53 men, more or
less, from July 10 10 November Is, at a
cost of S.10 900; finally. in the mining
troubles Of year ago go men from April
to May - at = cost OF $4,000. The mill
! tia of Wisconsin served ten days in the
Milwaukee riots OF lSe6. The service OF
our own state militia IN lSS5, in lSs9 and
last year. Is familiar TO our public.
The state militia IS fairly described by
the congressional House committee on
militia when they say that at performs
work that would otherwise fall upon the
army. under she guarantee which the con-
stitut;ou gives that each state shall be
protected by the United States, if ueces.
sary. from domestic violence. Thus IN 8
double way. including It's local preserya
ton OF order as we'll as its readiness tc
answer the call Of the president against 5
foreign invader. il can fairly appeal 10 iht
liberal support - congress
-
Several troops Of Federal cavalry have
arrived in Wyoming to reinforce thos,
that have been there since April, AMI It is