The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-05-30
ANTIQUATED MILITIA LAW
GENERAL STATUTE MORE THAN
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD

Patched Up by Congress Until 1t Is
COntradicting and Confusing, and,
as Experience Has Shown, Can
Not Be Relied Upon to Produce an
Available Army In Time of a Ma
tiOnal Crisis.
Washington Bureau st. Paul Globe, !
Corcoran Building.
| Special to The St. Paul Globe.
WASHINGTON, May 29.-In a recent
dispatch reference was made to the
Anticipated militia law under which the
United States government is still oper-
ating. The history of this law and the
various attempts to amend it acquire
fresh interest in view of the difficult
ties attending it's administration in a
crisis like the present.
The continental congress, on July is,
IT'S, adopted resolutions recommending
that all able-bodied, effective men, be-
tween sixteen and fifty years of age,
in each colony, Immediately form them
selves into regular companies Of mill
tia" and that one-fourth part of the
militia in every colony be selected for
! minute men, OF such persons as are
willing 10 en- .er into the nee eSSary ssrv-
i've; and as these minute men
may eventually be called to action be-
fore the Whole tody of mi tia are suffi-
cient.y trained, it is recommended that
more particular and ilisent atten ior
be laid to their Instruction in mills ary
discipline
One of the first acts of the First con-
gress was the appointment of COM
mittee of the house of representatives
to p, epare a bill for the or aniz ton of
the militia. The committee had not re-
ported at the close of the sess on; but
at the opening of the second session, in
1870, the secretary Of war, Gen. Knox,
submitted plan of his own, which has
often been revived by wr.t-rs on mill
tary topics as if it were original with
| themselves.
GEN. KNOCKS PLAN.
He propossd that every boy Of eigh-
teen should be enrolled in cadet corps
and obliged to serve for thirty Gays the
first year, thirty days the second year,
and ten days the third year; no man
being permitted to exercise the rights
of citizenship uni SIS he could produce
! a certificate that he had compiled with
this law.
AT twenty o2e, Zach cadet was to be
! enrolled in the adult militia cops and
obliged to drill four days in each year
! for the next twenty-four years; and
| from the age of forty-five to the age of
| sixty he was to be enrolled in re-
serve corps, subject to assembly and in
spection twice in each year. The fed
! eral government was, Of course, to bear
| all the expense of uniforms, arms,
equipments and the esta blishment and
! management of camps of instruction.
CongI ess took up the sec. etary plan,
| moulded it into a bill, and discussed
! the HI fer two sess ors, with the usual
result of changing it in pretty nearly
every rarticu ar before enacting it into
! law.
On May 8, 1892, was passed the act
which we now have as our only general
militia law. 1t retained only one pro-
vision which bears any close relation
sh p to the Knox plan, namely, one re-
curing the enrolment of every citizen
! between eighteen and forty-five years
! CT age for militia duty; but 1T tick
away all the incentive to the contin
uance of federal control by providing
that the militiamen should arm and
equip themselves at their own expense.
| TIE law contains so many absurdi-
! llGS IIldL II ndQ not D6Gn Id1rly written
! In the statute book before 1t received
J a vo.ley Of criticism, which has been
repeated at irregular intervals ever
since. with varying particulars though
without producing the desired effect of
a complete revision. The first critic Of
| the law, of any eminence, was Presi-
dent Washington himself.
LAW CONFLICTING.
The requirement that each citizen
should arm himself was the first point
| for concentrated attack. In 1894 COM
mittee of the house reported a bill for
the organizatio of "select corps of
militia to be armed and equipped. by
the federal government, and paid while
serving in the camps of instruction
each year"
In one form or another these proposed
amendments continued to come up at
session after session until 1898, when
| all consideration of the militia queS-
ton was merged in the larger exigency
presenting itself in the imminence of
war with France. President Jefferson
revived the subject as soon as the
French war furry was out of the way,
] and his energetic policy bore fruit in
the act of April %, 1903, providing for
a permanent appropriation of 100000
a year to supply the militia with arms
and equipments, though the champions
of the movement overlooked the neces-
sity of repeating the old law. We have,
therefore, on the statute book today a
permanent fund for arming and equip
| ping the militiamen, whom, in another
paragraph on the same page, we re-
, quire to arm and equip themselves.
! President Jefferson, as was natural
| in a man who had seen a revolution
! carried successfully through by hand
full of energetic youths, had some dis
| tinct notions of the value of young
men in warlike service. When, there
| fore, it became plain that the militia
would be an unwieldy body if allowed
| to keep pace actually with the coun-
! trys growth, and an agitation began
| in congress for some change in the.
requirements that all citizens should
be enrolled, he suggested that in time
| of peace no duty be required of any
one more than twenty-six years old.
CONGRESS SLOW.
Congress dilly- dallied, as before. with.
the whole question, till the outbreak
of the war of 1872 again obscured public
1 become president, and, taking up the
subject where his predecessor left it
off, had recommended the establish
ment of annual camps of instruction
at the cost Of the federal government,
where commissioned and non-commis-
stoned militia officers should be drilled
| idea Of classifying the militia by age
and making the brunt Of the hard work
| fall upon the youngest corps. His Sec
rotary of war, George Graham, took an
active interest in this plan, acting in
| cooperation with William Henry Har-