River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1913-12-04
POPULAR TALKS ON Law
BY Waiter K. Towers, A. B., J. o., Of the
Michigan Bar.
The Militia and the Law

If you are male, citizen of the
United States, and over eighteen
years of age and under forty-fve,
you are a member of the militia.
Unless you are one of the small mi
nority who have a uniform and a
place in regular company, and as
semble in the armory upon stated
occasions you probably are inclined
to doubt the accuracy of the state
ment. While almost all of the adult
men in this country are members of
the militia under the law, few of
them know it.
The status of the male citizen as
members of the militia is fixed by
Act of Congress of 1908. amended
in 1908 and 1910. Under it all able.
bodied male citizens between the
ages of eighteen and forty-five, with
certain limited exceptions, com
prise the militia. Those who are
enrolled, uniformed and equipped
by the states comprise what is
known as the Organized Militia.
The remainder, which includes the
majority of us, are known in the
War Department and stand before
the law as members of the Reserve
Militia.
No active duties are imposed up
on this vast unorganized body of
Reserve Militia. They are simply
a body that may be forced to be-
come members of an organized mil
itary force. AS the draft during
the civil war was brought home the
liability of citizens to serve the
country under arms, whether they
desire 10 or not, this does not i'm
press us as novel.
Under the law which was passed
in 1892, and which was in force for
over a hundred years, every able
bodied citizen of suitable age was
not only member of the militia,
but presumed to be a member of
the active militia, and the theory
under which the founders of the
Republic enacted the law was that
every such person should and
would be enrolled as an active mi
litia man prepared for instant ac-
tive service by equipment and train
ing. Under this law, which was in
force until comparatively recently,
every man was presumed to be a
minute man. OF course, univer-
sal service, while the law of the
land, remained but a theory and
was never enforced. The law was
a dead letter.
The Constitution Of the United
States provides that The Congress
shall have the power to provide for
calling forth the militia to execute
the laws of the Union, suppress in
surrection, and repel invasion; to
provide for ornanizing and disci-
plining the militia, and for govern
ing such part of them as may be
employed in the service of the Unit
ed States, reserving to the states
respectively the appointment of the
officers and the authority of train
ing the militia according to the dis
cipline prescribed by Congress.
Under the present law it is the
organized militia that is organized
and disciplined and to whom we
look to support our scant regular
army in the event of war. Until
universal peace is a reality instead
of hope and dream we must rec
ognize war as possibility. The
development of the science and the
equipment of war renders an IN
trained soldier, whatever his natur
al bravery and capacity, of compar
atively little value, and this is
especially true since the develop
ment of our civilization leaves few
er and fewer citizens who are in any
way familiar with the use of fire
arms. So it is of the matter of oul
citizen soldery is one that is of the
greatest import, and the laws which
regulate the militia should be of i'm
mediate concern to every citizen.
Primarily the organized militia i:
a body of state troops. In forty