The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-02-12
Congress win Appropriate Over !
Million Dollars for Drills.

Congress VIII Appropriate Over !
Million Dollars for Drills.
Washington, Feb. 12.-Congress will
probably appropriate from $1,000, 900
to $1,200,000 for encampments and
maneuvers of the national guard of
the country this year. A new plan
for the education of the organized
militia will probably be carried out
by which the guard regiments and or
CARNATIONS will be sent to regular
army brigade camps established in
seven or eight different parts of the
country.
There will be no army maneuvers
on a great scale such as the maneu-
vers at Manassas in 1904, for, in the
opinion of army officers, the expense
is too great for the value received.
Hull. Favors Plan.
Chairman Hull, of the house mill.
tary affairs committee, thinks congress
will make provision for the regular
army camps and will set apart about
a million dollars for the expenses of
the guard organizations that go into
camp with the regulars. He regards
with much more favor the plan of
having these brigade camps than the
one Of huge maneuvers.
General Oliver, assistant secretary
of war, In recent explanation of the
new system to the house military
committee, said: 1t contemplates put
ting the whole or most of the regular
army in tents in the summer for three
months. In the old days, in the period
of the Indian wars, the troops had
plenty of opportunity to fit themselves
for field work, but now the bulk of
them live in garrison and do not have
much chance for development. Presi-
dent Roosevelt has been urging some
method of meeting the present con-
ditions, and 1t Is through him that SO
much attention Is to be given to the
practice march hereafter. In the sum-
mer the regular troops will be order
ed into brigade camps and will be re-
quired to march to these camps from
surrounding posts. Guard regiments
will be sent to such brigade camps
from neighboring states and each
guard organization will remain with
the regulars ten days, taking part in
drills and maneuvers. The govern
ment, under the Dick law, will pay
the transportation of the guard troops,
will provide their subsistence, and will
give the guardsmen while in camp
the pay of regular troops.
Location of Camps.
There will be one camp in the north
east, tone in the southeast, one in the
central states, one in the northwest,
one in the southwest, one on the Pa
cific coast, and possibly a larger one
at Fort Riley.
General Oliver considers, and SO
told the house committee, that the
value of these camps will be very
great. In the first place, the prac-
tice marches will do the regulars good.
The training and experience afforded
the medical corps, the quartermaster's
department will be valuable. 1t is ex-
pected the medical officers will learn
much regarding camp sanitation and
hygiene.
Valuable training in the maneuver-
ing of troops will be given the general
officers. The chief of staff will pre-
scribe the course of instruction, and
officers of the general staff will be
sent out, just as they were sent to
Manchuria, to report, observe, and
criticise, so that defects may be cor
rected.
General Oliver told the house COM
mittee there was not transportation
enough to equip division. He
thought the coming encampments
would reveal this weakness and result
in numerous improvements.
In addition to the Inauguration of
the brigade camp system, movement
is we'll under way to establish brigade
posts in various parts of the country.
President Roosevelt favors this. 1t
would result in the concentration of
the troops to a considerable extent.
Numerous small frontier posts would
be wiped out as we'll as some of the
smaller posts In the northeast, es-
pecially in New York state.