The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-01-19
MILITIA GAN BE
 GOOD SUBSTITUTE FOR J. s. ARMY
So Declares Col. Goodman of First Connecticut Infan-
 try in Article.

That the organized militia can be made an efficient and satisfa ctory substitute for a large regular army if Congress will only do It's plain duty, is the statement of Col. Richard J. Goodman. commanding the First Con necticut Infantry. The colonel in an article in the current issue of The Army and Navy Journal, claims that Secretary Garrison's plan for 8 con tinentaI army combines the weakness of the militia with that of the pres ent army. He also out1ines\his own i'd eas for the development of thed i- yisionaI organization plan-
 tsIt appears that according to expert military opinion the organized militia, is of little military value in time of need It is not and cannot be ef-i fective as regular troops, but it must remain infinitely more effective at the beginning of a war, when troops may be needed suddenly, than volunteers who are not only untrained but not even organized; and believe more effective than any proposed substitute for first line troops such as the con tinenta1 army, which seems to have most of the weaknesses of the organ ized militia and many others
 .4The idea of a peace strength where no provision is made for the iInme- diate expansion by filing the ranks with men as efficient as those already enrolled in an organization is an ab- surdity and should be permanently banished from our military policy.
 t'Congress in the Constitution is given the power ito provide for or ganizing, arTning and -discipining the rni1itia,p reserving to the states the. appointment of officers. Congress has full power to provide for getting into Working order the militia If the criticisms Of the war college are
 
 heretofore passed have failed to get the militia into working order. Working order'' may be interpreted to mean such structural order, at least. that the militia will be ready to perform the duties required of it when ca1ed into the service of the United States by the President. s
 AS organized at present the militia, is deficient in the strength of it's units it is not organized generally into large tactical or administrative units, and the troops necessary for the proper and effective organization of these large units are not in most cases avail able. The system of volunteer service in the militia has been grafted onto the militia system as first prescribed by Congress, in the first place by the action of individual states and later by Congress. when it passed our pres-5 ent Federal militia law. The volun-s teer system imposes the duties of a re-s cruiting officer on the commanding officer of a company. troop or battery which he did not have under, the old law, and which he should not have8i as it inpaifs his efncieneys in othersa ways. It is a duty which no officer Of the regular army. when in com mand of his organization, has to per- q form, it being all carefully done for him.
 sIet us consider the powers of Con-
  state shall maintain. The only linn ttation placed upon the power of Con gress to provide for organizing of the militia relates to the appointment of officers. It must therefore, be with in it's power, but this power cannot be delegated to the war department, to provide by statute how many mill ftia divisions shall be rnaintaifled, and of what these divisions shall consist, and to apportion the troops among the states. For example, Maine may be required to furnish one regiment of infantry and ten companies of coast artillery with the necessary officers; Massachusetts six regiments of in fantry a regiment of cavalry, a regi- n1ent of field artillery. a supply train, and so on through all of the states. In states which had 8 whole division assigned. to them all of the divisions officers would be appointed by the state; where a division was divided among several states an inspector-in- 1 structor could be detailed to the di- vision, together with a sufficient num- 1 Der of assistants to form his staff, and 1 this officer in time of war should be l the division commander, and at the l call of the President the divisional or ganizations would become automat- l ica1ly complete.
 Tiff Congress can require the service | of all citizens in the organized nni1i- | tia and can Say what organizations ] are to be maintained by eadh state, il l must necessarily follow thatSit can re- l quire that each state shall maintain 1 these organizations at a war strength | at all times, first by volunteer enlist | ments, or if enough men do not vo1-l unteers then by enrolment from the l body of the reserve militia If the | army has not a large enough number of officers of sufficient rank to provide | for the fnspeetor-instructor required | by this plan, Congress would have to r authorize the necessary increase.
 Questions of arnfng. discipIining | and paying the men of such an or l ganization are not attempted to be treated of at all at this time but 1 there is no doubt in my mind, from my own experience. that they can be worked out so that the organized mil itia, can be made the most efficient l and satisfactory substitute for a large regular army which we can have for purposes of defense if Congress will only do it's plain duty and exercise it's 
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