Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1916-12-29
Senator Lee Given Right To Cross.
Examine.

hsned OF my appearance before the Com
mittee on Military Affairs of the Senate
and cross-examinine Colonel Brown. of the
Tenth Cavalry, the main point is omitted
requested that General Wood and Gen.
eral Scott be recalled and subjected to
cross-examination. At first the committee
declined to do this and the newspaper
accounts are so far correct, but after think
ing the matter over. Senator Chamberlain
and other members of the subcommittee
wisely concluded to permit the cross-exam-
ination of these witnesses. who have so
sharply criticised the National Guard as
modified last summer. and have so notified
me.
When first went into the committee
room Colonel Brown was apparently testi-
flying as to the superiority of colored SOL
diers, presumably as compared with white
soldiers. This is probably the keynote to
Colonel Browns temperament and the
value of his testimony. Such a nature is
perhaps uncOnsciously opposed to the con-
stitutional bulwarks of the free races. He
evidently preferred the colored soldier by
reason of his submission to command and
amiability under hardship. The charac-
teristics Of races that have achieved liberty
and written constitutions are naturally of
less account to the Colonel Brown type.
During the few minutes that was in
the committee room listening to Colonel
Brown he was testifying also as to the
difficulties and strain upon men and horses
in the pursuit of bandits in the mountain
Gus part of Mexico. Colonel Brown also
orally identified as his work so-called
report on the mobilization Of the organized
militia, etc. which has been recently printed
in the Government Printing Office, but
which does not on its face bear the sigma
ture Of any official OF speak for any bureau
of the War Department
Colonel Brown is employed in the Militia
Bureau of the War Department and this
document is supposed to be an attack upon
the National Guard and made by an officer
in the bureau having charge Of the Ma |
tional Guard But this criticism, If such it |
be, and have not had chance to read |
ii, has neither the signature nor apparent |
approval OF the general in command of the
Militia Bureau. and it certainly appears to
be outside of usual military channels.
This ineguiar-appearing report is what
was noticed so largely by the newspapers
who are unfriendly to the National Guard
in advance of the Secretary of Wars fav-
orable report doubtless for the purpose of
minimizing the effect of the Secretary's
report.
| did not cross-examine Colonel Brown
without the consent of the committee.
The chairman permitted me to do so. As
a cavalry officer talking about horses, ETC.,
! asked him why four-fifths of the horses
trained last summer are now being taken
away from the Maryland Artillery and
will be presumably from the Maryland
Cavalry when mustered out. and whether
it would be possible for the guard to mob
ilize quickly in either Of these branches if
the policy of the War Department required
them to get new horses and train them for
any future mobilization. Our Battery A
has been engaged in training horses and
drilling as artillerymen all summer and
had when mustered out some 1870 horses
Ehis battery is now left with only 80 horses
and doesn't know how long the so will be
permitted to remain.
Colonel Brown. Of course. admitted as
that not supplying horses to
the National Guard or taking them away
after they have been supplied and trained
would retard mobilization and undermine
Colonel Brown further admitted
that the Swiss have solved this question
Of horses for their large militia army. which
Is always kept ready for instant mobiliza-
ton and is modified every summer as a
whole. He had apparently no objection to
the Swiss method of keeping horses always
ready. Thereupon. the subcommittee con-
Guided not to let me cross-examine the ,
other witnesses, but afterward. upon con-
ferring more fully, they have adopted the
wiser plan of permitting cross examina-
ton.
The patriotic mobilization of the Ma
tional Guard of last summer smashed to
the former argument of former
Secretary of War Garrison and of Gen Leo
nard Wood, "Forty-eight little armies in 48 I
states" is what Secretary Garrison called
0 av l,.N he. naI h.. | I
able national force for national purpose I
that did not excite any special national
The defects in its mobiliza-
ton. moreover. have been shown and will
be further shown to be attributable to the !
neglect of the high command in the War {
Happily there are many Off
GERS in the United States army who have I
earnestly and efficiently with
the National Guard system.
These officers recognized that this is I
representative form Of government and
that the people of this country will not
sanction the creation Of a great army alb
solutely centralized without any of the {
precautions Of our own Constitution or the
similar precautions under which the sue
cessful Swiss army exists today, or which I
the French republic has provided for the I
protection of free institutions. | believe {
that some form OF universal military ser
vice after the method Of the Swiss would
be appropriate for us now. but while the
Swiss system gives the Confederation the
power to carry out the organizing arming
and disciplining OF the militia. just as our
Constitution gives the same power to Con-
eress. yet the Swiss bring the Canton and
even the Commune into their plan more
extensively than our Constitution and laws
have heretofore done with reference to our
States and the militia.
We have the National Guard system