Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1914-05-10
NATIONAL GUARD
 READY FOR WAR Preparations Insure Mis- takes of 1898 Will Not
 Recur.
EAGERLY AWAIT CALL
Engineers Ready to Rush to Lay Out Camp Site as Soon as NObi. liZatiOn Order Is
 Issued.

Washington May 9-Our citizen soldiers are vastly improved since the
 war with Spain. In 1898 all was con- 1 fusion and turmoil during the mobili- cations. Men were marched back and forth aimlessly Many went hungry
 when food was nearby. There was cro owding and friction. bad feeling and untanitary conditions. Disease killed five to bullets one.
 The experience of Cuba, Porto Rico and Montauk Point have not been for gotten. In the sixteen years since our | last international conflict thousand reforms have been inaugurated, a thousand improvements put in force. The mlitiamen, or national guards men, are today an alert, business-like, l formidable organization, with little of the amateur apparent.
 In the last few weeks there have been few such good customers of newsdealers as the guardsmen. Eag- erly they scane every edition. Of course they are not bloodthirsty, but it would be such a satisfaction to try their mettel in good cause.
 Even in the last year one distinct step forward has been made. Every recruit now must promise to submit to anti-typhoid inoculation. This is applied at intervals of seven days for three weeks.
 Must Be Vaccinated.
 "We cannot compel guardsmen who enlisted prior to November to undergo 1 the treatmen," said surgeon general of the state militioa organization recently. But anyone who does not want to be incoulated may not expect to be enlisted now. l would like to | make it plain that only one-tenth of one per cent of the men who were | treated were inconvelienced for a few days by pain.
 "There has never been death as | the result of this treatment. And it | has been shown in the regular army | that inoculation is absolutely neces- sary to insure men against such dis ease an incapiciated our troops il the 1 Spanish war"
 | When the trouble with Huerta be- came acute preliminary orders went out first to the adjutant generals of
 the militia in the department of the East, which comprises twenty-one r states east of the Ohio and Mississip- pi rivers and the District of Columbia These states reported 70,513 enlisted men and officers as ready to take the
 field to the general staff at Governors island, in New York harbor. They comprised six divisions.
 Most formidable of, all was the New | York contingent, which amounts to a division and few regiments over and l which ranks highest in the reports of recent inspections of state milltlas delivered to Washington. As an evi- dence of high efficiency the New York guard division has been incorporated as a part of the First Field army, the other division of which are regular troops. The New York adjutant gen. eral reported 16,52S men.
 Movement Following. Call. When the guard is called upon to mobilize in time of war the first move is to rush the engineers to the camp site, where water pipes are laid, tents streets are marked out and ar engagements are made for the disposal I of refuse. Right after the engineers come the medical corps, which LOOKS out for sanitation, and the slgnai corps, fully prepared to equip the camp with telephone, telegraph and temporary wireless outfits. The com missary department is meanwhile busy buying horses and mules ana l contracting for food supplies. The arrangement of trains and transports is partly in charge of the commanders and partly under the d. rection of the engineers-the ora | "Wsappers and miners"
 Not all the national guards goes to Mexico on the first call In New York State, for instance, a force of 5000 to 10000 men will be left behind 1 at the armories, which will be trans formed into barracks. Even with these discarded, the enlistments have been
 so rapid that the division would be up to requirements.
 Next to the supply corps, the busl-
 est officers in the early hours of the mobilization period are those Of the
 medical staff. There are many men
 who, although. physically fit in. civil life, are not. capable of withstandlne
 the rigors of a campaign under con
 ditioas which might be expected to
 prevail in Country where, comforts
 man be measkx only by the degree
 of efficiency with which the commis.
 sary arrangements are managed from
 the field base.
 The hostility of the inhabitants
 which could be expected in Mexican
 campaign, will render the mainten'
 ance of lines of communications. g matter of considerable hazard and diff