The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1910-12-16
NATIONAL Guard
Will GET HELP
Bill Introduced in the Senate to Pay
the Volunteers Service as
Reserve Corps.

washington, Dec. lb.-SerVlce pay
for members of the National Guard is
provided in a bill introduced today by
Senator Penrose of Pennsylvania. All
men in the ranks who attend forty
eight drills during the year or such
equivalent duty as is prescribed are
to be entitled to 20 per cent of the
pay of man in the regular army.
No allowance will be made when less
than twenty drills have been attended,
and between that number and forty
eight the pay is to be proportion
ate amount of the % per cent.
All officers below the rank of gen.
eral officers are to have a per cent
of the pay that goes to regular army
of like rank.
No militiaman can secure the al
lowance during the first year of his
enlistment unless he makes a record
score with the army used by his
branch of the service.
Favored in South.
Practically all of the Southern con-
gressmen have been pledged to vote
for the bill.
The campaign for the adoption of
such a bill was started about two
years ago by the National Guard
Magazine, monthly magazine pub
lished in the interest of the National
Guard all over the country, and it's
stirring articles so infamed the mem
bers of the National Guard that the
fight was taken up in every state
where the guard exists, and that is
every state in the union. Military
officers, regular and militia, all agree
that the bill is good one and should
receive the endorsement of the legis-
lative and senatorial bodies provid-
ing as it does the means of greatly
enhancing the enlistment of the mill
tia companies.
Will Increase Interest.
The work that is being required of
the National Guardsmen exceeds that
required of the regular army, and al
though the members of the National
Guard enlist from a sense of patriot
ism and duty, and not the hope of
being paid for their services, they
feel that they are due some considera-
ton for their services to the state
and country, and feel If the bill is
adopted it will be the means of great
ly increasing the interest of the mem
bers Of the guard.
The bill has met with much opposi-
ton from the civilians of this and
other states in the union, the citizens
holding out that the guardsman is
paid when he is required to do riot
duty or called out to fight for his
country or state.
1t is true that the guardsman is
paid when he is on actual duty, but
the civilian forgets the regulations
that the volunteer soldier is placed
under at all times.
The citizen forgets that when a man
enlists in the National Guard he |
pledges himself to give up business,
home and even life, to protect the in
terests and property of his fellow citi-
zens, his city, state and country.
Burden on Men.
Each company in the National |
Guard is given less than two hundred |
dollars year, in addition to the rent
of the armories, and the officers of
the National Guard submit the propo-
sition that if the companies are to
make an appearance that will be a
credit to the city and state they must
dig down in their pockets and pay
the bill.
The men, therefore, urge the people
of this section to endorse their action
and use their influence with the Mis-
sissippi delegation, not that they wish
to be paid individually for the ser.
give, but that some. of the expenses
vices and time which they willingly Il
to the running of a military
organization may be lightened and
the men avail themselves of a few
extra pleasures that will be possible
should this bill go through congress.