The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1907-09-27
I'm Time Of Peace"
81. Albans Messenger.l

The BrattlebOrO keiormer asks, w nat
would the old Green Mountain boys say
if they could know OF the Vermont rifle
teams record at the national shoot z
The chances are they would be disappolnt,,
ed, to be sure, but, If they understood
present.day conditions, they would realize
that the real fault is back OF the boys and
rests entirely with the public policy.
In the first place, we are not as peo-
pie doing anything in particular to eneour..
age rife practice for the development OF
expert craftsmanship among the young
men generally. We ought to do it, but
we don't. We neglect great many other
essential things in times of ease or safety,
and then. when the emergency or stress
of peril is upon us, we suffer needlessly
for a long time in our first grapple with
conditions because we are "unprepared
Every war we ever engaged in has its
melancholy preface OF lives lost and treas
ure wasted because we were not ready.
The first essential Of the soldiers eifec-
tiyeness in battle is the ability to shoot
straight. The soldiers of the regular army
are constantly given practice that they
NAV excel in this deficiency. But every
was we ever waged was manly fought
by volunteer troops, by men fresh from
the everyday pursuits OF peace what
are we doing to prepare these men to
shoot straight?
II is not merely visionary TO suggest
that in every community in Vermont the
leaders of public affairs ought to syste-
matically encourage rifle practice among
their Young men. The various ways in
which this may be done viii suggest
themselves readily enough if there is any
thing like serious determination to do
it. With local interest in this tascinat'
ing and healthful sport stimulated IN every
proper way, it follows as natural conse'
quence that the young men most likely
to 90 into the military service IN emer-
gency will be attracted meanwhile by the
opportunity for rifle practice SIMPLY be-
cause the natural bent and inclination that
predisposes them to one Will influence
them to the other. Then when the emer'
gency comes, at least, fair proportion
of the young volunteers will be found TO
know how to shoot. II Is too late TO
try to learn to shoot after the war has
begun.
In the second place so far as the en-
rolled militia, or the National Guard it
self, is concerned, the state of Vermont
should provide more literally for the main
tenance of constant target practice than
it does today. 1t should spend more
money on the laying out and maintenance
Of ranges in every town in which there Is
a military company, and it should supply
to every man in the service well nigh all
the ammunition he is willing to employ
in legitimate target practice. 1t should
hold out substantial inducements to ITS
soldiers to qualify as marksmen, and IN
a variety of ways lay much OF the stress
and emphasis OF its system oil military
education upon the cultivation of simple
elemental ability to shoot straight.
This matter has been theorized about
more or less from time to time but no.
body here in Vermont appears to do very
much about it. Some day when a crisis
comes, we will all wish we had. Let the
Messenger relate little circumstance
that is fresh in the minds OF many men
in the state of Vermont today who are
not yet past the middle age. They VIII
remember being mustered into the United
States service in time OF war nine years
ago and. after some delay, being EQUIPPED
with an old model Springfield rifle; with
rod bayonet, many OF the guns being IN
such shape that the hammer could be re-
leased bv pull on the trigger at half
cock. These young soldiers were being
drilled all summer long for what was eX-
pected to be the long, fierce, and bloody
assault upon Havana in the fall Young
boys, young men, and some older ones
most of them unfamiliar with firearms
simply the average citizen soldiers leav-
ing the plow the office, the forge, the
store, and the workshop to serve their
country in time of danger-to stand up to
be shot at and with no chance to save
their own lives but by shooting the enemy
first.
And in all that summer of grim prep
aration for the death grapple those volun-
teer soldiers of Vermont were only once
taken to an impromptu rifle range and
then allowed to fire five shots apiece at
a target! -,
Shall we repeat such experiences with
orr ewes wide open?