Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-12-20

H. This duty was for the Federal
Government to perform.
The War Department as at pres
ent organized is utterly incapable OF
handling such large bodies of men
ana properly equlpping them for
service.
That more men did not respond is
because the country at large has not
realized and did not believe that any
great emergency existed. 1t seemed
iooilsh to the public to call such a
large body of men into the service if
1t was merely for training purposes
ana to imagine that the Nationa
Guard consists of men who can af-
! Iofd 10 Immediately leave their civil
pursuits and undertake five or six
months OF training is u mistake and
Is expecting more of these men than
should be required.
Most people who have given this
matter OF preparedness serious con-
slderatlon will agree with General
Scott, that the only democratic plan
Tor oar people to follow is universal
military training.
II our people would adopt some
form of universal military service if
would be necessary for some such
organization as the National Guard to
be maintained in order that the train
such organizations. 1t is Just as un-
talr to criticize the splendid men
ana organizations who have answered
the call of the President during tLis
year, and expect them to have attain
ed perfection, as it would be to have
expected our navy to have advanced
by leaps and bounds in its strength
and efficiency merely because the pres
ent Congress authorized great in
creases in the navy and made au-
preparations to meet these increases.
The sudden call before the Guard
had any chance to benefit by the pro
visions of this act, to undergo this
long period of training undoubtedly
has been a great blow to future en-
llstments i'll tie Guard. However.
this call has given us a great BODY of
framed men who will sooner or later
find themselves building up additional
organizations.
Speaking from the experience in
pennsylvania, it must be remembered
that these troops responded prompt
ly. In four days time, after reach
ing Mount Gretna, the first unit was
started for the border, having been
vaccinated and inoculated and fully
equipped, and the last organization
was able to leave Mount Gretna. on
July ?, only fifteen days after thev
had reached that place.
III tlllS mODlllZatlOn OF these or
ganizations they were kandicapped
by the inability on the part of the
Federal government to supply them
with blankets and other necessary
clothing and equipment. TIE muster.
ing officers were uncertain as to their
instructions, and in all of the States
of the Union the desks of the adm
tants general were piled with tele-
grams and orders from the different
departments of the army contradic-
tory in nature making demands whict
were physically impossible of being
complied with.
THAT more men did not respond to
this call and Immediately fill up these
organizations to war strength is no
fault of the National Guard system
That the War Department has seen
proper to adopt a policy of refusing
discharges to men on the border even
though the conditions at home would
have warranted a discharge during ac-
tual war will make it difficult in the
future TO secure men to fill these or
ganizations.
This training. while 1t has been
costly and has developed many weak
spots. will not reflect any discredit on
the National Guard. but has in a great
measure justified the hopes that the
friends of the Guard expressed for IL
at the time liberalization was being
considered"