Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-15
THE NATIONAL GUARD
Rifle Practice Prizes Are
Ready for the Winners.
POLICE AND SOLDIERS
RENEWED EFFORTS TO HAVE
DICK BILL PASSED.
To Be Considered by the Senate
Second Line of Defense-Minor
Happenings.

Nothing out Of the ordinary is transpiring
in District National Guard circles Reg
uar drills are in progress and other routine
work is receiving attention Considera BILE
interest is being manifested in the ceremony
incidental to the distribution of prizes won
in the recent contests at Ordway, which
will occur in the drill hall of the Center
Market armory next Thursday evening, the
Goth instant. The successful teams and in
dividual winners of prizes will report to
Maj. Richard D. Simms, 18th Battalion, at
the drill hall not later than $50 O. clock
pm. on the date specified, will be formed
by him, and will be under his command
until dismissed at the conclusion of the GER
emones.
Undress uniform, with caps, leggings,
white gloves and side arms, will be worn.
Maj. SimIhs will confer with Maj. James
E. Bell, inspector general of rifle practice,
Monday evening for the purpose of arrang-
ing the details of the distribution. Gen.
Harries, accompanied by his staff, will at
tend the ceremony. Invitations to be pres
ent will be extended to the donors of prizes.
Policemen VS.. Guardsmen.
Maj Bell and Maj. Richard Sylvester, SUI
relative to the revolver match in which po-
licemen and national guardsmen are to
figure as contestants. In addition to
team match, there will very likely be sew
eral individual competitions. The intention
is to make the coming together of the guar
dams of the peace and the citizen soldery
gala occasion, as interesting to the spec
tators as to those firing. The Engineers
Band, from the Washington barra cks, it is
understood, will enlivenz the evening with
musical selections.
In this connection the National Guard
hnri how Stxxl ,tnr
ket officials to erect permanent gallery at
the indoor rifle range over the It'll street
wing for the accommodation of spectators.
The rifle gallery will be opened for the
indoor season December g.
1t is understood that the troops of the I'd
Cavalry, stationed at Fort Myer, will in
dulge in their official rife practice next
summer at the Ordway range.
Private S. l. Scott, Company A. 9th Bat
TALON, one of the local. crack shots, has an
nounced that he will soon apply for his
discharge from the District of Columbia
National Guard in order to accept a posi-
ton rifle practice coach for one of the
states.
Urging Passage Of Dick Bill.
The Interstate National Guard Associa-
ton. of the executive committee of which
Gen. George H. Harries is a member, has
begun active canvass to enlist support
for a movement to secure the prompt pas
sage by the Senate, upon the reassembling
of Congress next month. of the Dick
militia bill. The night of June 30 last, Con-
gress adjourning the following day, the
bill was passed by the House of Represen-
tatives under suspension of the rules. One
hour and ten minutes after the bill was
brought before the committee of the whole,
on a vote of $50 to 2S the House had acted
on a measure which up to that time had
been urged IN vain for lilo years in the mes
sageS of the Presidents, from Washington
to Roosevelt.
Col. Edward E. Britton of New York,
chairman of the executive committee of the
association, has made the following state
ment explanatory of the Dick bill:
THE new law deals with the problem Of
creating, out of fifty separate and diScon-
nected bodies, or, say, armies, of citizen SOL
diery. homogeneous force which may be
unified for active service of the United
States. 1t aims at complete uniforming,
armament and equipment, and through the
discipline of such drills, target practice
campments, field maneuyers and theoretical
instruction as may be reasonably imposed
on men engaged in earning their livelihoods
in the occupations of civil life to bring
the organized militia up to the greatest eff
fciency and degree of usefulness of which
such body is capable.
For those specially ambitious to fit them
selves to command or administer in the
field, in case Of war, the means are pro-
vided free of cost to the Individual and the
government is compensated in a list of
qualified officers, who can be depended upon
in an emergency
A National Volunteer Reserve.
"a national volunteer reserve of 100000
trained men is at hand, SO that, as first
force in the field, in addition to the regular
army, from 200, 600 to 100000 men may be
modified, ready for service. at the tap of
the drum, composed of the flower Of young
American manhood with all the term i'm
plies in patriotism, self-reliance and adapta-
nd fy-a,S hn nnr,n
petition and rivalry for success in all the
endless variety of occupations of civil life,
yet all with a fair degree of soldiers
training.
"Infuse into this force; out of the hun
dreds of thousands of ex-militiamen and
other willing citizens, whatever numbers
the occasion demands and there is your
army, expanded to 500, 600 or 100000 men
or more.
ut can be readily understood that the ac-
coanphshTnent of these objects must demand
concentrated, untiring effort, with special
knowledge and experience of the conditions
and composition of the forces, as dstin-
guished from regular troops.
TT is worthy of the most careful consid
GRAFTON, whether the existing staff depart
ments of the army would not be overbur-
dened with this new worl-whether creation
Of forms of reports and the records of the
militia forces should beadistributed through
out the different departments which may
should be one office, IN which everything
relating to the militia. shauld concentrate
and out of which everything should en-
anate-whether this should4be branch or
bureau of an already established depart
ment, In charge of subordinates-or whether
the volume and Importance of the work
does not fully warrantaa department of the
militia, on a par with OTHER staff depart
ments-whether such department should
be IN charge of an officer taken from the
regular army, whose training has been
along the lines OF army routine and who,
while to be counted upon to perform the
duties with all exactness. might lack desira-
BILE zeal in this particular work because In
no special sympathy with it or with the
state authorities with whom he would deal
and whose sympathy and earnest co-opera-
ton he might not attract-or whether, from
all standpoints, as a bond of union between
the state authorities and forces and the
regular army as conferred In the War De-
partment, the head OF the department of
the militia should not be taken from among
militia.
The following is suggested as the first