The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-09-24

l VIII 10 very muCn encouraged dnC
viii be ready next year to make &
record in the National Match that will
be much more creditable and nearer
the top than that made this year II
was fully demonstrated to the Ala
bama men at Sea Girt that prae.
tice was the main and most important
need. and that without It the rife
could not be handled nor satisfactory
and accurate shooting be done.
The national government is ex-
tending every aid and encouragement
to rife practice giving very literally
for tho purpose and that money
Is expended wisely and judiciously, II
Is sure to bring good results. "Ths
man behind the gun" is the power In
modern warfare and one hit Is worth
hundred misses. Learn t. SHOOT
the arms with which yen are provid.
ed and tho organized militN will be
the equal of the regular army Cor
active service Here in Alabama much
enthusiasm and interest has been
aroused and in very short time the
records of all commands will be good
and before another year rolls around
there will be many crack shots.
Praise for the volunteer.
In the United States the volunteer
soldier has proven, time and again,
not only his Intelligence but his prac-
/, tical ability to cope with the regular
In active service. That the average
volunteer is more Intelligent than the
regular, need not be said, for 1t will
not even be denied or questioned for
a moment by any one familiar with
present conditions. It has been prov
en-, often by practical tests. recently,
that the volunteer soldier can do as
good. IL not better work In service
than the regulars in our army.
Att a.
this line. The Washington Times says:
England has been greatly inter-
ested in the career of volunteer COM
mand which has been maintained at
popular expense and enlisted for the
explicit purpose of standing. compar-
ison with regular troops after only
six months OF training. The test has
now been held
AT Aldershot the citizen soldiers
termed the Spectator Experimental
Company. because the I well known
publication Of that name espeused the
undertaking conspicuously--was at
tached to the First Battalion of the
Grenadier Guards, unquestionably one
of the finest infantry regiments in the
word, according to the London papers
Two sham fights tried both the self
possession and the training of the
command. At the close of the field
day General Sir John French, who SUI
pervfsed the maneuvers. addressed the
volunteers personally, expressed him.
self surprised. at the excellent manner
in which they had acquitted them
selves, and stated that they had
proved themselves worthy of taking
their place by the side of any of the
regular troops.
The Incident recalls the expert
ence of our own District militia at Mt.
Gretna. There also, citizen soldiers,
enlisted from the government depart
ments. stores, banks. journalism. and
every other source of supply. were
drilled as a detachment of regular
troops. subjected to the same demands
on their physical endurance. required
to solve the same problems, and put to
the same practical tests.
The showing in America corre-
sponded exactly to that in England.
Our desk strained enlisted men fell so
readily into the routine of life in the
field, supplied an intelligence so apt
at making up deficiencies in expert
ence, that General Grant, who COM
manded the camp, felt justified In COM
mending our District men as highly as
General Sir John French did the Spec
tator company.
There is a lesson In this OF much
more Importance than local pride. 1t
is that Anglo Saxon intelligence is a
better element in the making of the
modern soldiet than years of barrack
life. Warfare has developed out of Its
old mass tactics and the evolution has
taken 1t, as IL takes most things, back
to the old problems in a new form
In this case back to individual fight
ing. The way to measure an army
today is to measure its personal unit.
The best personal units either this
country or England can furnish are
the men engaged in civil life; and
there is no disparagement of the en-
listed men in the army and navy FIN
saying that. If the clerks, profess
sional men, tradesmen and mechanics
of these two countries are properly
Differed they constitute a better pro-
lection for their own homes than the
hest standing army which ever beg
CARED a treasury"