The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-21
INFANTRYMEN HAVE A GRIEVANCE. Third Regiment Men and Their Ground of
 Complaint.

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 Old infantrymen of the Connecticut National Guard do not fall in with the idea of going in to camp with the Coast Artillery this year. Some of them have been quite outspoken and say they do not think it is likely to benefit the infantry in the least, while there is every possibility of injuring that branch of the service. The experiment of having a regiment of infantry act in support of the Coast Artillery is to be tried on the Third Regiment.
 This regiment will have F days of camp duty and will be divided between Fort H. G. Wright and Fort Terry. The War department suggests this plan to have infantry regiments in sea coast cities familiar with the workings of big guns so that in case of war they could be used as a reserve force. While the infantrymen have no objection to learning something about coast artil- lery, they think practical infantry drill would be more beneficial and can seen no reason why they should not go into camp as infantry at Man | tic. Men who have had eight or ten years of service say c. N. c. camps | are becoming too irksome to be attrac- tive.
 | They think that the encampment at | the forts will mean lots of extra work in carrying out the night drills and keeping in step with the regulars. "Of course, when man goes into the Ma" tional Guard" is the way one of them puts 1t, he expects to be called upon if necessary for active duty. But when 1t comes to making each suc- ceeding camp harder and harder, with little time for recreation or enjoyment, | 1t is going to be mighty hard hoeing 10 get recruits. Young men will not be attracted by the prospects of having to go to camp to work, especially as some of these men take the only vacation they have during the year to go to camp"
 This guardsman thinks things are not run on practical basis; that the makers of the States military laws do not stop to consult the guardsmen. He says, Tn the present legislature the !, bill providing that the guardsmen be paid for attending drills was thrown down, ostensibly because 1t did not em- , anate from the generals of- flee. Well just such scheme as that l men to come to drills. They do not feel like going to drills when they have something else to do if there Is no pay 1 for it. Then there Is the law which provides that a guardsman must take his discharge when his time expires. | That was passed this session and is one of the most harmful things which could befall the C. N. G.
 Formerly man enlisted and served three years. If he did not feel as if he wanted to get out at the end of the three years he stayed in and his time ran on one enlistment Now a good many men will hesitate after they have | finished one enlistment to tie them- selves up to the State service for three | years longer and the most of them vii, l quit just when they have reached >he stage where they are well drilled and | valuable. The guardsmen do not think they are in the same class with the | regulars. Most of them do not want to. They prefer some military disci- | pline to none at all but they are In it for the most part to gain experience and not to be tied down.
 While 1t is certainly a commend able thing to have State troops as well equipped as regulars; fed as regulars; drilled as regulars and appear like regulars it is noticeable fact that enlistments have fallen off greatly since this policy was projected Only a few years ago right in New London three companies thrived and had nc trouble getting recruits. Now it is al- most an impossihility to get any one ot the three companies there up to the maximum and it is the hardest kind ot work to get recruits.'
 The idea of showing the infantry what the coast artillery has to do is considered the first step in movement to secure a coast artillery regiment in this State. It has always been consid- cred that Third infantry was the regi- ment most likely to be converted into coast artillery if any. Most of that regiment is located in coast cities and the plan would be more practical The plan has several drawbacks, neverthe- less
 It is safe to say that large per- centage of the men in the infantry regiments prefer to remain as infan- trymen They enlisted as such and could not be converted into artillery unless by their own consent Then, too, Col. Gilbert Il Fitch commanding Third infantry, would lose his chances of promotion if that regiment became coast artillery. Colonel Fitch is now the senior colonel of the brigade and