Evening star., 1912-11-24
NIA?l0N1A44,S| A4,S|GQARD I
! DISTRICT If|saF1C "a C0Lll1BlA


New Jersey, with 4.Go4 men. divides S2'o.
94S among its National Guard organiza-
tions. at the rate of $40 man.
Now the United States, by virtue of two
laws well known to every quartermaster,
distributes money yearly to the states
to aid in the upkeep of the guard To
New York the United States gives S1,OII.-
81: to Maryland 1t gives S134,S55: to
Pennsylvania it gives S739,476; to New
Jersey it gives S347 800, and to California
it gives S325. 7oJ.
The District of Columbia is neither
overfed nor underfed, according to these
figures. although it is Well known that
some of the things the District needs are
gade. The United States appropriation
under the per capita figures, in the Dis
trict of Columbia is S33.3o; In MARYLAND
it is S3os1: in New York it is sai.6e: in
New Jersey 1t is So5.40. and in California
it scars up to the enormous sum of
$3.50 a man. 1t costs nearly S125 a
year to keep militiaman in California.
In the District of Columbia it costs
SlI.62, approximately.
Officers of the National Guard of the
District of Columbia have the opportunity
to study the recommendations of Lieut..
Calvin w. Tits, United States Infantry,
on the subject of the best manner of en-
ploying the services of sergeant instruc-
tors. as the Bulletin of Militia Notes, is
Sdtd Ds tie dlNlSlOH u Hillllld dldGS Ill
der date of November 16, reproduees the
recommendation in full. Lieut.. Tits is
known throughout the service as the
first man to enter Peking in the Boxer
troubles. He was a musician in the 14th
United States Infantry, and in recognition
of his deed he was sent to West Point
Although the recommendations deal
With states in which the SergeantS can
spend but ten days at a time, the gen
eral plan may be found of interest here
10 ofacf ct
should be laid upon squad training
The squad is the unit about which
most of the rest of fighting army must
revolve. This for the reasons that: In
the squad the individual is taught how
TO obey orders: how to march; how to
put up his camp; how to handle his arms;
how to fire them: how to clean them;
how to take care of them so that when
the time of necessity comes they will be
ready for use: how to act as a patrol, as
a guard of any kind, how to advance on
an enemy; how to take cover and how
not to take 1T, and how to take care of
his physical body while in the field. What
is platoon, company or battalion drill
but the movement of a small or large
number of squads together? If the nom
commissioned officers and men of COM
pany do not understand squad drill thor
oughly, how can you expect them to exc
cute most of the movements in company
drill? The most of company drill is
-
execute their drill at the same time.
having certain distance and interval re-
lations with each other"
X X
Farther on Lieut.. Tits gives his idea
of how much time a sergeant instructor
should devote to various details, as fol-
lows:
Sixty per cent of the time at each
drill will be devoted to training the squad
in the school of the soldier, manual of
arms. squad drill in close and extended
order, guard duty. bayonet exercise and
setting up exercise.
TWENTY-FIVE per cent Of the drill time
will be devoted to training the squad in:
Sight reading the use of the half sight,
all of the sighting exercises, special at
tention being giver to the position in
rapid fire kneeling, from standing start,
rife at the ready-rapid fire prone from a
standing start with rifle at the position
order arms. loaded and locked. In these
ra apid-fire movements the sling must be
used Qoop over left ARM, use of the
battle sight and where to aim with 1t at
the 200. 800 and 500 yard ranges when
firing on the rapid-fire target. CThe new
course that is to be adopted Is all rapid
or time fire for record. Kneeling at 200
yards. prone at 800 and 500. prone with
sand bag rest at 600. Every one shoots
the same course and is graded accord
ing to the per cent made).
Fifteen per cent of the drill time will
be devoted to: The manipulation, care
and cleaning of the different parts Of the
rifle; special attention will be devoted
to the care and cleaning of the bore;
training in the use of the cleaning ma
terials furnished by the government. If
the rifles of the company need 1t, one
entire drill period may be given to the
practical work of cleaning the bores OF
all the rifles in the company. (The hold
ers of the rifles, of course, doing the
work..
Capt Harry Coope, adjutant. 1st In
fantry. y G. D.. c., has announced that
special car service has been arranged
for the evening of Friday, November 70.
when the regiment will attend the spe-
cial drill at Fort Myer. Extra cars will
leave the 18th street station of the Wash
ington-Virginia Railway Company for
Fort Myer at frequent intervals, the
running time being thirty minutes.
Private P. ii. Agramonte, Company K,
1st Infantry, has been ordered honorably
discharged ION his own application
Honorable discharges because of re-
moval from the District have been order
ed for the following members of Com
pany B, 1st Infantry
Corp. Henry II. O'Neill. and Privates
Clarence Howard, Richard J. Mohun.
George Tracy and Dorsey B. Mcguire.
and the following members of Company
Z. 1st Infantry: Privates Frank Alsop,
John II. Backing. Burton w. Brunger
and Aloysius ONeill.
x x X
complete test of the new electric
targets at the rife range was given yes
terday under the supervision of Maj.
Thomas S. King, inspector of small arms
practice. \ report on the results is ex-
pected this week.