Omaha daily bee., 1908-07-10
WELL TRAINED MILITIA,

Mr.. Bryan is quoted as having ex-
pressed himself on the question of the
platform declaration concerning the
army that he believes with Thomas
Jefferson that the nations best de-
tense is a well trained militia" The
habit of recurring to Thomas Jeffer-
son is so ingrained in Mr.. Bryan that
this reply seems characteristic. Mr..
jefferson made his remark at a time
when a well trained militia was the
idea of democracy as opposed to the
standing army that had been the .sup7
port of the royal p%rerogative. The
militia of Mr.. Jefferson would bear
about the same relation to the army
of today as would other features of
social or commercial life of the time
compare with similar activities of the
twentieth century.
Military service in the United States
is and probably always will be volun-
tary. The soldier enlists freely in
time of peace and enthusiastically In
time of war. Never since this has
been a nation, If a short period during
the civil war be excepted, has any
question as to men arisen in connec-
ton with the national defense. The
American citizen is ever ready to vol
unteer. Even Mr.. Bryan served for a
short time as colonel of a volunteer
regiment. and that service should have
taught him the difference between a
man ready and willing to fight and a
man properly prepared to fight. The
soldier of today is really a specialist
in the fine art of war. improvements
in arms, changes in methods and ad-
vance in tactics and strategy have
brought new demands on the soldier,
and the man who would have been
considered we'll trained in the time of
Jefferson would be helpless in the
days of Bryan.
The small army maintained by the
United States is merely a nucleus for
the establishment of a great volunteer
force In event of war. But 1t has
even a more important function, in
that 1t is in a larger degree a train
ing school for soldiers. Men serve
their time of enlistment and return to
civilian life we'll trained to ~re-enter
the military service at any time, and
thus the little army is really a train
ing school. The utter i~nadequacy Of
the old idea as to the national guard
u,z th1rax,uh1u a~hfbtfna or tho fIpnn
of the Spanish-American war, and
since that event more and more at
tention has been paid to the training
of the men in the state service. At
the last session of congress legislation
was enacted that establishes. the
%guardsmen Of the several states on the
footing OF United States volunteers,
and provides for their further incor-
poration into closer relations with the
regular army. This is for the pur-
pose of better training.
The democratic objection to this
program naturally flows from the per-
sistence Of the state sovereignty idea.
It is this that is uppermost in Mr..
Bryan's mind in his quoting from JEFF
~ferson. The same idea was uppermost
In the mind of one of Mr.. Bryan'5
warmest supporters, who, as governor
Of Colorado in 1899. cabled to the
First Colorado, serving in the Philip
pines. TO lay down arms and tax ship
for home, because the national gov
eminent had nc claim on their serv-
ices. Something Of the same condi-
lions have been experienced at other
times in the history of the country.
It.is 10 obviate this sort of thing and
to secure something Of uniformity in