The San Francisco call., 1898-05-30
THE BEST NATIONAL oUARDsMEN.

| ~ UR much esteemed contemporary the Bostoi I Journal, comments as warmly as ourselves tn
 request of General Merritt for an increased number of regular troops for the expedition to Man 1la, but not for the as ourselves. It hold that the regulars needed for the Philippine than for the Cuban expedition because, generally speaking, the best of the National Guardsmen ir the East and are concentrating at Tampa Troops
 like Massachusetts men are schooled and steady enough to fill the place of regulars"
 l With regard to the West it says: "The National Guardsmen of Washington, Oregon, California, Colo rado and Utah are splendid material for effective army, but as yet they in the rough They have not the perfect equipment nor the opportunities for drill and discipline of the militia of the old Eastern States and It IS Jud1cious policy great expedition of this kind to stifen them with powerful nucleus of the regular troops of the United States" There is nothing in this serene assumption of the superiority of Eastern volunteers over those of the West to find fault with When all the trumpets of the nation blowing blasts of war we must of course permit Massachusetts to blow her own little trumpet along with the rest We quote the blast not to con- demn it, but to approve it. The rivalry in be- tween the sections and the States of the Union will be as generous that in times of peace These little local patriotsms feeders to the great stream of national patriotism and help to rouse men to high exertions by awakening spirit of emulation among the soldiers of every State in the glorious galaxy of the Union.
 Of course who live in the West know that this claim of superior breed of guardsmen the part ot the Boston1an IS simply illustration of the per lection which can be attained in boasng bya strict de- votion to beans and culture but we are going to get angry that account. Massachusetts has no climate to brag about any prunes; her poets all dead her magazines have gone to New York and her mills going South her statesmen are back numbers, her college professors are mugwumps, her best girls come West to hunt husbands, her largest pumpkins are not bigger than Californian strawber res, and there is nothing left her that is sufi- centy bright to inspire boast of local loyalty except the uniforms of her ancient and honorable artillery
 So with large Californian tolerance welcome the sounding challenge of the Boston bugle and will leave 1t for the hazards of determine what vol unteers shall show themselves most steady when the battle rages. For the present we content ourselves with pointing out that when the President called for volunteers from the National Guard the guardsmen of California responded and there was never objection to the call It was different in Massa- chusetts It took the Governor of that State and his officers good long time to decide whether the Mas sachusetts guard could go at all or not as members of the Volunteer Army.
 In the first movement of the war therefore it was the West and the East that furnished guardsmen best fitted to act with the promptness and unques- tioning obedience of regulars With that exception the claim of the Journal is all right and we are glad to know that it approves of General Merritt and has confidence that when they longer "in the rough the Western volunteers will make pretty good army