The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1916-08-03
COL. WALES EXPLAINS

To the Public:
1t appears from press reports con-
tipually brought to my attention that
considerable misinformation has been
given out over the state of South Da-
kota concerning the matter of the en-
listment of men in the South Dakota
National Guard. The new oath is set
out at length in section 70 of the New
Defense Act and the A%djutant General
of the State of South Dakota was mott
fed on June Is, 1916, that it would be
necessary for the National Guard of
South Dakota to take this oath, by
June 80, but the oath prescribed did
not give tie men credit for the time
they had served on their current en-
listment and he did not get authority
to add that to the new enlistment con-
tract until June %. The clause which
we wanted put in there was telegraph
ed the A%djutant General and reads as
follows: "This oath is subscribed to
with the understanding that credit will
be given in the execution of this o N
tract for the period which | have al
ready served under my current enlist
ment in the organized militia of the
State of South Dakota" This made
the new oath an absolutely fair pro-
position and 9OR of the regiment sign
ed it Immediately. Out of the LOO
men in camp at that time there were
129 who did not understand the pro-
visions or who objected to the addi-
tional feature in the new oath which
was, that every person who signed It
agreed to serve an additional three
vaarS in tho rncnrun which cippnlu
meant that when their period of enlist
ment under their present contract had
expired, if the emergency was great,
or the ~exigencies of the service re-
CURED it, they stood subject to call at
any time during the three years fol-
lowing the date of the expiration of
their present enlistment. AS oon as
it was explained to the men that the
regular army had to serve three years
with the colors and four years with
the reserve: that the regular army
would be called first, it's reserve next,
the active organized militia third and
the reserve to the militia or these very
men who now take the oath, as a
fourth line of defense, there was no
trouble in getting nearly all Of the
men to sign, and out of the 129 there
were but 20 left, II of whom appeared
before the mastering officer, signed
the oath of allegiance to the United
States and were duly mustered into
the service of the United States, under
the old law, while three have not yet
complied with any of the provisions,
and these three are the only men of
and concerning whom any of the state
ments made might or could honestly
apply, one of whom has since signified
his intention to complete his contract,
leaving but two privates, Privates
Long and Pomeroy Of Company &C"
who still hold out.
Under the former oath Of enlistment
every man who Joined the militia sign
ed an oath in triplicate, stating that he
would obey the order of the Governor
of the State of South Dakota and the
President of the United States. i. e.,
the Dick Bill Oath, under which they
could be called into the service Of the
United States at any time by the Presi-
dent, under that oath of enlistment,
could send the troops out of the Unit
ed States, but there is no question and
can be no dispute that under the Dick
bill the president had a right to call
them into the service of the United
States and require them to present
themselves for muster. Section Z of
the Dick bill provided that they should
present themselves to the mastering
officer" and for a failure to do SO thev
should be court-martialed. This very
act was amended in 1908 and section
Z, as amended. provides that every
member of the organized militia when
called into the service by the Presi-
dent az provided, shall present him.
self for muster" and that is all that
has ever been required Of any Of the