Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-24
Suspension of Rifle Practice
at the New Range.
REPORTS OF OBSERVERS
GUARDSMEN MUST NOT BE TOO
EASILY SATISFIED.
Comments of a Regular and Militia
Officer on Efficiency of
Local Brigade.

The SUSPENSION of the regular schedule of
rifle practice and the reception at head
quarters of the reports of the officers who
acted as observers at the army maneuvers
were the only events of Importance in Ma
tional Guard history last week. The first
event came surprise, because II was
generally understood that the range was
in the best of condition. The board OF
officers appointed to inspect 1t, however,
believed that on this occasion the District
cannot afford to have a question raised
as to the safety of the range, and that am
pie protection. more than ample protection.
in fact should be given everyone living IN
the vicinity. The principle that there are
FIVE men frightened to every one killed by
the bullets fired in actual warfare also ap-
plies to a rife range, and 1t was reaiized
by the officers in charge that the five per-
sons to be frightened would do rifle shoot
ing more harm than the occasional person
killed; therefore If all chance of any one
being frightened or killed was destroyed alb
solutely and a system adopted which would
dispose of the bullets from the guns as
surely and as absolutely as though they
were on strings that could be pulled back
when they had gone far enough, all would
be we'll That is the reason the board was
appointed in the first place, and that is the
reason why the report was mace as IL was.
Another Test Made.
party of officers, which included Maj.
James E. Bell, inspector general of rifle
practice and Capt A. P. Robbins, a1d-de-
camp of the National Guard, and Lieut..
George C. Shaw, 9th Infantry, .. S. A,
visited the range Thursday afternoon and
went through series of exhaustive tests
All these officers are expert rlhemen,
and are acknowledged as being at the head
of the rifie-shooting fraternity of the coun-
try, but on Thursday each endeavored to
shoot as badly as he possibly could, and to
be as anna teurish as possible, in order that
he might simulate the fire of the lnexpe-
renced soldier. They shot over and under
and around the targets just to see where
lost" throughout the afternoon, all of the
others being accounted for; but at the
same time the rife practice OF the untu-
tored officers and enlisted men of the Ma
tional Guard is to remain In abeyance, ana
the work of making the range safe from
every point Of view will begin shortly.
In the meantime the offer of the Maryland
authorities of the use of the Maryland
range has attracted some attehtioh, ano
today Capt Tate of Company l, 1st Regi-
ment and a party of the men from his
company are at work there attempting 10
complete their scores. Several other orncers
and men will journey to the Maryland range
before the season is closed. for even If the
District range is opened this year no long
distance ranges will be used, and TO qualify
as experts officers and men VIII be COM
relied to accept the invitation OF the Mary
land rihemen. Those officers and men VINO
shot long-distanee ranges in any of the
matches at Sea Girt or Fort Riley Will not
be required to shoot additional long-distance
scores as the scores in the matches VIII
count as part of their ordered practice for
this year.
The Maneuver Reports.
The reports of the officers who attended
the army maneuvers make a most inter-
esting document in the aggregate. Each
officer was detailed to accompany some
particular brigade in the field. and ea>h'
therefore, saw the engagements that TOOK
place from the point of view of the prlgaae
to which he was attached. Each officer
made a daily report of the operations as
well as the final report covering the en-
tire time spent in the field, and each, there
fore has submitted two stories of what
he saw The last reports may be said TO
be the most interesting, as they are sum
maries of all that was seen and contain
the personal opinions of the reporting ON
GERS as to the value OF what they saw
and the difference between the methods
followed by the various militia organi-
cations observed and those of the District
National Guard.
Admitting the District has better Ma
tionaI Guard organization than any state
represented at the Inaneuvers, said an
officer of the National Guard in discussing
the subject this week, 1T appears 10 me
that the officers who observed the maseu-
yers are a little too broad in their stale
mepts when they say, We have nothing
to learn from what we saw of the militia
troops in the field and in camps. L be-
Iieye we have much to learn. There Is
ton Mfr in
the value of our own organization ana
its ability to withstand all sorts OF hard
ships. l have spent many weary years
learning what / know of military science.
and / am willing to admit that l nave
lot to learn and that l learned lot from
the militia I saw at Manassas and Thor
oughfare during the week l spent in the
field 1t is true that the most l-crned
was how not to do certain things, but
have observed during the course or my
short lifetime that there is but one way
to do thing right, while there are hum
dreds of ways to do 1t wrong.
Il believe l saw all the wrong WAYS or
performing certain kinds of duty during
the time / was in the field, and / know
| will profit by them. Some of the COM
mands l saw appeared to me to have start
ed wrong in the first place, and could not
arrive at anything but wrong concln-
sion So. l can state one of the first
and most important of the things learned
the value of starting right. Then again
l saw troops in the field who had evil
IDENTIFY been started right, but who had
slipped up somewhere in the general prog
ress of events, ana / saw how and why
they had slipped up. Lesson No 2, there
fore, showed me the number of pitfalls
that lie in the path OF command after
it has been started toward a certain stand
ard of excellence, and l believe / nave
learned bow to guard against falling into
them
Comparisons Made.
I'VE don't know i all yet, by great big
bookfull, and we mustn't set ourselves up
to Judge others too closely / fancy that
any one of the militia officers who attended
the maneuvers could find all manner of
faults with US. We not pretty to look
at In the first place. The clothing of our
men does no. fit. These are minor things, but
they count a heap with the people who we
must look to for the kind of moral support
that makes an efficient militia body. We
have simply reached a stage in our de-
velopment where We can look back and
take short glance at those that follow.
But We must not remain turned too long
The others will push up and get ahead of
us. We must look to a high standard al
ways and not let the things we have learned
to correct bother us. l heard a regular
army officer commenting on the militia of
one of the big states during the time / was
in the field. This state has the largest
organized militia in the country and up to
short time ago was supposed to have the