The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-04-21
NATIONAL GUARDSMEN WIN
EMERGENCY WAR MEASURE IS
 RUSHED THROUGH THE HOUSE,


 Followed During the Civil War-war De-
 partment Concerned Over Calling Out of
 Volunteers.
 Washington, April 20.--The house to-
 day passed as an emergency war meas
 ure the bill empowering the president to call out the volunteer forces and providing for their organization. Both the president and Secretary Alger had
 urged the necessity of the passage of
 the bill to-day and Chairman Hull
 drove it through under whip and spur.
 The bill was drafted at the war de-
 partment, introduced in the house and
 considered and reported by the com
 mittee to-day. No such expedition could have been possible except under the stress of war pressure. The bill is
 permanent in it's character. The prin- cipal change made in the bill as intro duced was that the appointments of all regimental officers are to be made by the governors of the states instead of by the president, as was proposed orig inally by the war department. This ac- tion conforms to the practice of the | civil war.
 War Department Concerned. Washington, April 20-The object of | most concern at the war department | to-day was the calling out of volun- teers. This turns out to be much I more complicated question than was at 1 first supposed and the officials in des peration are looking to congress for immediate relief in this extremity | There are all sorts of antiquities and conflicts in the existing army laws | which it is said consist of nothing more than lot of patchwork dating | from the beginning of the republic. It | is recalled that even President Lincoln | was obliged to call upon congress to validate the calls he had been forced | to issue for troops and no successful | effort has been made since that day l to provide adequate machinery where | by the government might avail itself | in an emergency of the vast resources | of the United States in the way of troops. One of the difficulties that l confronted officials to-day when 1t was
 supposed that the way had been cleared l for the use of the national guard and l volunteers was a conflict between sec- l tion 1,603 and 1,645 revised statutes l It was the purpose of the department | in deference to the wishes of the na-
 tional guardsmen to allow them to pre-
 serve their own organizations in the
 event of their being called into service,
 but the National Guard regiments are l all organized on the three battalion
 basis and each regiment consists of
 twelve captains with three majors, bat
 ganization provides for one major and
 a very much reduced staff of officers
 and ten companies. It is manifestly impossible, therefore, to muster the national guardsmen into the army
 with their present organization, and it
 is believed inexpedient to attempt to | reorganize the guard on such short
 notice.
 | Call for Volunteers.
 | Washington, April 20.-The topic of
 absorbing interest in military circles
 to-day was the expected decision of the
 president and Secretary Alger upon the | question of how to place the volunteer
 forces at the service of the government | No less than three consultations were held to-day at the White house on this subject, but it was finally announced
 that it would not be possible to issue the expected call for volunteers to-day. l