New Britain herald., 1916-05-20

fools, will continue to preserve the 1 United States even if the congress will 1 not furnish anything for Him to do 1 1t with.''
 Senator Lee of Maryland replied | that the national guard would be | made efficient under the bill, and pointed out that the provisions of the American and Swiss constitutions
 With reference to militia are similar. AS the Swiss system of national de- | tense is defective, he argued, the American system would be. Bran degee said that he was not familiar with the Swiss constitution, but that authority for various provisions con- tained in the army bill for traning the national guard in this country is not found in the American con- stitutiOn
 CriticiscS Rejection in Conferences. Senator Brandegee called attention to the fact that the conference re-
 port reduced the army by 75,000 men
 from the size which his amendment
 for 250,000 men provided for. He
 criticised the rejection by the con-
 ferees of section 56 of the Chamber
 lain volunteer federal force pro-
 vision. The Connecticut senator
 spoke in part as follows:
 MT President, I beg to assure the Senator, Mr. Chamberlain, that I estimate him as a true friend of main taining the national authority of this government and of having the neces- sary force, the necessary military arm, to protect the life of this gov ernment and it's people under any and all circumstances; and I have no doubt that if the Senator could have had his way he would have had real bill, in which the country could have had some confidence and which would have resulted, come what may in at least affording the nucleus of a regu- lar army organization and a possi- bi1ity of training a reserve for it which would be reliable and which would not disappoint us in case of emergency. I have no doubt the Sen- ator did the best he could to get the other body to accede to what I would consider a reasonable view of this sit uation; but I think it is a serious question after all whether it would not have been better for the senate conferees, who no doubt believed in the bill which the senate passed, to have absolutely broken with the house conferees over this difference and to have declined to enter on a system and to commit this country to a system, which I hope will not be permanent, of attempting to rely upon the militia of the several states as the first line of defense after the regular army of this country.
 MT. President, the individuals who compose the militia of the several states are patriotic and wel1-meaning. They show that by going into the militia. They do the best they can They want to do something to be of service to their state and their coun- try. Unfortunately it is not their fault that they can not be made a reliable part of the first line of defense as regular army reserve. It is not their fault. It is simply that the consti- tuition of the United States prevents its being done, willing and able as they may be.
 T do know that the constitution of the United States provides that the militia of the several states can be called into the service of the United States for three, and only three, spe- c1hc purposes-to enforce the laws of the United States, to suppress rebel non, and to prevent invasion. The trouble about relying upon the militia of the several states as an adeoLate supplement to the first line of de- fense-to wit, the regular army-is that until we get to the point where invasion has to be repelled we can not call the militia into the service of the United States. In other words how ever well prepared each separate body of militia may be in it's own state for those purposes, they can not be immediately called into the field-to- day, for instance-and put into train- ing camps by the president of the United States, in the service of the United States, for the purpose of hardening them down of testing their markmanship, and of making them proper men to put into the field serv- ice with the regular army to repel in vasion or to meet veterans.
 Reason about it as you may and caV1l about it as you may, there is that chasm between the militia of the several states and the regular army, that hiatus between the militia and the authority of the president of the
 United States who is the Commander in Chief of the militia of the several states only when they are called into the service of the United States, and he is utterly without authority over them at other times. There is that hiatus that can not be bridged; and this whole bill, so far as it attempts by the use of language and ad~oit ex- press1ons and phrases to accomplish to process designated as "federf.lizing the militia," is a failure so far as any immediate results could he ob- tained from the militia as a first line of defense. Every lawyer knows it. Every army officer knows it. The adjutant generals who have been so insistent here to prevent a regular volunteer army of the United States