New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-26
Militiaism Rampant

among the military prophets. lie is ABOUT
the one officer Of high rank and technical
proficiency connected with last summers
mobilization who doesn't classify that mob
ifzation either as a fasco or tragedy.
He is the one cheerful observer Of the lat
est breakdown Of our crude, obsolete, IRA
tional military machine.
The testimony which Major General
O'Rvan offers on his return from Texas
nanifests an irrestrainable optimism. ne
National Guard" he says, assured itself
Of future by its performance on the bor-
der. It comes back reviyided, reincar-
mated organization" This burst Of en-
thusiasrn must jar the composure Of Dr..
Charles ". Eliot, who not long ago was
praising President Wilson for supporting
the Hav army reorganization law, on the
sole ground that the Administration want
ed 70 have a chance TO demonstrate to the
country that any attempt to apply the
ridiculous Hay theory Of state militia fed
eraNzation was bound to collapse. II may
even disturb the equanimity Of Mr.. Hay
himself. making that arch enemy Of real
military preparation wonder whether his
crafty schemes for frustrating genuine
army reorganization had not fizzled, after
all.
But this is not all Of the story. General
O'Ryan is even more Of Hay army re-
organization man than Mr.. Hay himself
The Virginia anti-militarist federalized
the National Guard with a view merely TO
making it a useless pendant to the regular
army General Organ goes much further
than that. He wants to make the regular
army a mere pendant to a still larger fed
eralized Guard.
Here is the plan in which the generals
irresrainable optimism has budded. At
nineteen every young man is to be COM
PEELED to Join the state militia. He is to
enlist for six years-three with the colors
and three in the reserve. In the first
year Of active service he IS 20 spend two
or three months in the field. In the second
and third years he is to spend one month
in the field. The regular army IS TO be
reduced to the status of a police force. 1t
is 10 become Federal constabulary. Our
real army will consist Of miltiamen
trained to about the same degree Of pro-
ficiency as the state guards had reached
when they went on that practice trip to
the Mexican border, from which they have
now come back "revivifed and reincar
mated"
1t is obvious that if the task Of creating
a force Of several millions of soldiers with
in the next five or ten years is to be com
mitted to the present state Guard organ
izations. the regular army might as well
be retired at once into the shadowy back
ground. 1t can police the outlying posses
sions, our coasts and our borders; but
there its importance viii end as the ar
bitter Of our military policy. That policy
VIII be carried into the politics Of forty
eight states, the largest of which will
maintain armies as big, and eventually as
costly, as the army of the United States.
Major General Organs enthusiasm for
such a scheme Of glorfed militiaism may
be explained by his well known ambition
TO develop the housekeeping militia branch
Of the military establishment. He still
cherishes many early American ideas of
military organization. He and other
militia officers in the higher ranks would
have an enormous field Of activity and in
fiuence opened to them if the states should
all 20 in for universal Guard service.
Yet il we are TO take TO CONSUMPTION
tsud CONSUMPTION is the only reasonable
method Of raising and maintaining mod
ern, democratic army, Why bother any
longer about preserving the distinction be-
tween state troops and Federal troops?
Why dispense with the regular establish
ment as an agency for training, organizing
and supplying the army Of several millions
which is 10 be created? Why should West
Point and our other military school be re
stricted 70 turning out officers for mere
Federal constabulary?
We need to-day trained officers even
more than we need trained soldiers. The
conditions Of education for officers and OF
training for soldiers should be standard
lied. There should be one school for all
not two schools for two different armies.
All the military capacity which we can de-
velop for years TO come viii be required
10 keep our military establishment going.
II would be monstrous departure from
sound theory and from the teachings Of
our own bitter experience to associate once
more the regular army (still relatively
efficient, though under sized and organized
on wrong basis from the second and
third line bodies which must be amalga-
mated with it in time Of war.
Consumption is a universal principle. II
implies unity and equality in the condi-
tons Of service. Il implies one leadership
and one -all-embracing organization. These