Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-05-22

in the morning and will be open to all
guardSmen who have qualified expert
rifemen. The eighteen contestants MAX
ing the highest scores in the match will
be eligible as members to constitute the
brigade rifle team of the present season.
Entries for the match close next Friday.
! X
In reply to a request for the retention
of certain obsolete field pieces for
ornamental purposes, the adjutant general
of a state has been advised by the d.
vision of militia affairs that the act
Of May %. 1896. authorizes the dona
ton of condemned ordnance. guns and
cannon balls, which may not be needed.
to soldiers monument associations, posts
of the Grand Army of the Republic and
municipal organizations, without ex-
pense to the government To obtain
such property it is necessary first to
obtain it's condemnation and then to
have some municipal corporation within
the state apply for them, usually
through a senator or representative of
TIE state. The act in question does not
authorize the gift of the carriages They
can, however. after condemnation, be
sold. The price at which similar car
riages have been sold in the past is $40
per carriage.
The following ruling has been trans
mitted by the division of militia affairs,
to the adjutant general of a state who
requested information as to whether
captain of infantry of the organized mill
tia, who had been an officer of the line
for several years and also a practicing
physician, and who had passed the neces
Sary medical examination for a COM
mission in the medical corps, could be
commissioned a captain of the Medical
Corps. and receive the pay of that grade,
or whether it would be necessary to
commission him as a first lieutenant,
Medical Corps.
THE authority which is vested in Con-
greSS in the militia clauses of the
Constitution to prescribe the organiza-
ton of the militia obviously relates to
the composition Of regiments, companies
and other military organizations, and,
unless they are called into the service
of the United States, does not extend to
the incidents of the several military Of
fees SO prescribed. This for the reason
that a subsequent clause of the Consti-
tuition vests in the several states the
appointment of the officers provided
for In any organization that may be
prescribed for the organized militia by
Congress.
The organization prescribed by Con-
gress for the organized militia contem-
plates certain assistant surgeons as
part of the commissioned strength of
regiments, and such assistant surgeons
may have the rank of captain or first
.-eutenant. The tenure and other Incl
dents of such office in the regular army
are prescribed by Congress: the cor
responding incidents of medical Of
flee in the organized militia are prescrib-
ed by the legislatures of the several
states, and if there be qualifying period
for advancement from the rank of first
lieutenant to that of captain in the Medl-
cal Corps, no reason is known why the
qualifying periods of service should be
the same in the organized militia that
they are in the regular army, SO long
as payments made to the organized miIi-
tia out of funds provided by Congress
are restricted to captains and Heutenants
in the office of assistant surgeon"