The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-14
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1years has been spending a big sum of money in maintaining its militia. This has been done for serious purposes. and no one can question the wisdom of the expenditure. That has been demonstrated in the quelling and prevention of riots on more than one occasion
 The last Legislature increased the ap- propriation for this expenditure. The Governor is now, authorized to spend s150oo for the encampments of the States three infantry regiments and the squad. ron of cavalry and battalion of artillery. That is a big sum of money. and the peo- pie of Alabama have a right to know how 1t is spent and See to 1t that 1t is not spent foolishly. s E E a". It has been a number of years since an encampment was held in Montgomery. At that time there was characteristic in large degree the earnestness of purpose. the respect for the State uniform and the firm discipline which had been so strenu- ously inculcated for years by Thos. G. Jones. when he was Colonel of the old End Regiment and Governor. Because of their regard for the State troops. brought i about during that regime, the people of Montgomery subscribed a considerable 1 sum to secure encampments here this year. The Advertiser assisted in this un- dertAking.' It was one of the very first l subscribers. and one of its office force was the chairman of the committee that | raised the fund.
 Quite naturally when the 3d Regiment came here. the people of Montgomery looked for an encampment with the familiar characteristics. They expected an entire rank and file of sentlemaniy citizen soldiers. proud of their uniform, who came for military training in a well disciplined camp under the control of body of ex- perienced, firm, capable officers. The Regiment had not been in the city twen- ty-four hours before the people of Mont gomery found that their old-time ideals were shattered in considerable degree. A number of the rank and file showed utter disregard of their uniforms and behaved in most unseemly ways on the streets. The officers, most of them doubtless nice | gentlemen, demonstrated their lack of ex- perience. or capacity, the very first night by turning loose a large part of the Reg l iment on the streets, and by an appeal to the City Police before morning for a squad of twenty men to queil the conse- auent riotous disorder at the camp. When the officers could get no help from the police, they turned to their own abund- ant resources, beat an assembly, and I bound and gagged enough of the recall citrants to restore quiet and order.
 The Advertiser was forced as a news- paper to print a story of much that had happened. The people of Alabama had the right to know this. The people of Montgomery, seeing and knowing what was going on. would have had a con tempt for this paper. if it had ignored the disorder. That duty was discharged in painstaking way by careful men. Much was not printed that could have been. This publication, of course, at tracted the attention of the State off, cers, and it also made the regimental officers realize the situation and see their duty plainly. The result has been that the camp has been very orderly since the publication, and that the conduct of the Regiment on the streets has been com- paratively unobjectionable. If that pub- lication had not been; made. there is nc telling to what extremes the situation might have developed.
 This publication. of course, was not rel ished by the Regiment On Saturday a committee of officers made a sort of in- vestigation and issued a sort of white washing report. The superficiality of the investigation is shown by the strik- ing fact that neither the City Editor of The Advertiser, nor any one connected with the paper, was requested to give testimony. The in- accuracy of the statements issued is illus trated by the attempt to deny that an ap. plication was made by an officer to the City Police Department for a squad of twenty policemen-a statement confirmed by an officer of the Police in sunday's issue. The substance of The Advertisers s story was confirmed when the officers ad- mitted the guardhouse was badly torn uu on the night of the disorder, and that quiet was brought about by resort to bucking and gagging.
 The Advertiser regrets that the neces- sity arose for the publication, but 1t was forced to make 1t as a newspaper and in the interest of the whole State. It be-
 ieves, too. that such publicity was in the real interest of the State Guard. En- campments are not drunken frolics, and the States money must be spent decent ly and advantageouslN It is to be hoped that this affair will be wholesome les son to officers and men, not only of the Sd. but of other regiments, and that here after no such occurrences will mar the public regard for the citizen soldiery of the State.
 LETTING THE CAT ouT