The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-05
fled places.

fled places.
 The Board takes the position that flor practical purposes in battle. the man behind the riffe Is the military unit. and if he Is properly trained to hit what he shoots at, all other units will do good work" and insists that there Is no way by which a rife can be ac- individual training of the man who aims 1t and pulls the trigger"
 After pointing out Chat the United States must depend, in time of war, upon the militia and volunteers for the bulk of the fighting force, tho Board says that if the plans proposed in the bill are adopted, 1t is believed the United States will, within a few years, have more than five hundred thousand men who will have, for prac- tical purposes on the line of battle, nearly all of the requirements for the most efficient enlisted men in the world"
 Statistics of the existing regular army show that of the 6O,000 aggregate. only 24,O0o enlisted men of the infan- try and 12,000 enlisted of the cavalry, or a total of 36.oo0. are being trained as marksmeh. Of the National Guarl forces. amounting to 115.ooO ,approxi- mately only about one-third of the States have ranges or make any pre- tense of training National Guardsmen as rifiemen; the second third have tho merest apologies for ranges and quite third have no ranges at all. It Is. therefore, estimated that not more than 40. 900 or 45.000 of the National Guard have been trained to shoot. which. to- gether with the S6,0o0 of the regular army, make an aggregate available force of trained marksmen of only about S0.000 men in a country of S0,- 000.000 inhabitants. The National Guard Is only available for service in time of war for a period of nine months, so that volunteer troops drawn from civil life would be required. Of a land very outside, under existing circum- stances. only 80, 900 or 20 to 25 per cent. would have been trained in the hand ling of modem weapon and in accu- racy of shooting. The Board. there fore. argues: 'If then, we must depend so largely on recruits drawn from civil life. they must be trained before the time of their use arrives and means for their Identification provided In order that the forces enlisted shall be mado up in as great measure as possible of
 soldiers who know how to use their pieces"
 A resume of what other countries are doing In this direction shows that Great Britain, since the Boer war, is | making strenuous efforts to encourage rifle practice. Hundreds of ranges
 have been built and every inducement | is offered for boys and young men to practice. Ten thousands pounds ster- | ling Is annually appropriated by Par liament for the encouragement of ri- | file practice in England which is aug
 mented by many private prizes and MT. William Randolph Astor. formerly
 a citizen of the United States, recent ly contributed ten thousand pounds
 toward an endowment fund for the
 National Rifle Association of England | In iJ02 the aggregate prizes at the great Bisley meeting amounted to $50. | 000
 Canada, with a population of about
 seven million, gives ten thousand dol
 lars a year for the support of the l Dominion Rifle Association which re- l ceives at least as much from private parties. In France. rifle clubs under | the supervision of the government,
 are maintained. assisted and encour- | aged to the utmost extent. In Italy
 rifles clubs are formed under the di-
 rection of the government in every | community and a considerable reduc- ton in time of compulsory military | service is allowed to those men who have qualified as marksmen. In 1898
 Switzerland had $40 shooting clubs with 2i0,0o0 members. of which 163. .ooC qualified. Assistance Is given by The | Netherlands in money, arms and ann
 intuition, while Norway and Sweden | In addition to organizing rifle clubs
 for adults. are giving special atten.
 ton to the training of boys in schools
 from the age of eleven years up- wards.
 l When the whole world seems to bC
 keenly alive to the importance of ci.
 william rifle practice" says the report 1t seems strange indeed that the Uni
 ted States. the most progressive of the
 large nations. should have done almost
 nothing in this direction. although a
 greater proportion of its soldiery thar
 that of any other country. must be
 drawn from civil life. in case of war