New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-01
DEFENCE ARMY
COURTS MILITIA
COntinentaIS Will Receive
GuardSmen Rank
for Rank.
FIRST LINE DUTY
IN CASE or WAR
Garrison. Answering Complaints,
Says Government Seeks to
Encourage State Forces.
tFrom ms Trthune Bureau. ]

Washington, Oct 3l.-Complaints OF
national guardsmen that the new Con-
tinental army ELAN :1inimized the i'm
portance of the organized militia in
the national defence were met by Sec
rotary Garrison to-day In a statement
assuring the state organizations OF
place in the first line.
Officers in the national guard, the
Secretary announces. will be received
in the new army rank for rank. 1ndl-
vidual 2usrdsmen who prefer the in
tensive training offered in the summer
camps may enlist. Even regiments of
state militia will be received integrally
in the Continental army If they so de-
sire. provided the laws of their states
permit
In case of war the militia. as here
tofore, will be part of the first line OF
defence. Federal appropriations for
the encouragement OF the national
guard will be continued on an even
more generous scale than In the past.
Secretary Garrison declares that the
appropriations asked for this purpose
in his estimates are practically double
those granted last year.
The Secretary has been in confer
cnce with leading national guardsmen
for several days. From an attitude al
most of hostility TO his reorganization
plan he he's converted them 70 enthusi-
astic advocacy. General Foster. OF
Florida. chairman Of the executive COM
mittee of the national guard. said to-
day that his committee would recon-
mend the Endorsement of the Garrison
plan at the convention of the National
Guard Association at San Francisco on
November g.
Full Recognition for Guard
Secretary Garrison's statement fol-
lows:
During the last two days there has
been a series of conferences here with
number of the leading representa-
tives of the national guard of the coun-
try. In so far as | participated in the
conferences they were entirely infor-
mal-that is, no committee or organi-
cation of the national guard was act
Ing officially in so far as the confer
ences with me were concerned.
Among these representatives were.
think. all of the members of the exec
utive committee of the national guard.
of which committee General Foster, of
Florida, is chairman, and all excepting
one of the members of the National
/ Militia Board. of which General Organ
is chairman, besides whom there were
other men prominent among the ma
tional guardsmen Of the country.
Il laid before these gentlemen every
| thing that they desired to know and
which would be useful for them to
know concerning the plans for national
defence so far as they related to my
| department. | said to them-and it was
likewise obvious from every part of the
! plan which concerned the matter that
I ! recognized to the full the situation
respecting the national guard.
This body, during all the time when
there was practically no interest in this
country concerning military matters,
has been working, in so far as constitu-
tiOnal and other limitations would per
NIT them TO work, to do whatever they
could do to improve the military stu
alton of this country. They are abso-
lutely entitled, by virtue of this fact, to
full and proper recognition in any mill
tary system or policy to be proposed by
the War Department. informed them
that | proposed to accord them this full
recognition.
Troops May Come Over Intact.
"In my proposition the membership
of the national guard is offered alterna-
tives based upon this full recognition
and meeting every proper point Of view
with respect to their relationship to the
matter of military policy. In other
words, proposed that any and every
organization of the national guard that
is free TO do SO, in 80 far as its state
obligations are concerned, may come