Arizona republican., 1916-12-14

fingered hv the constant attacks which officers of the regular army are making upon the national guard not as body of men. but upon the principal which holds it together, Ad- iutant General Harris of the Arizona national guard, yesterday gave out one of the warmest statements ever coming from national guard officer.
 Gel Harris is one of the best posted mon in the country on what is the matter with the guard, and what can he done to remedy it. Time after time he has made the verbal state ment. that if the war department would stop it's bounding tactics and cease it's efforts to ruin the guard in the interests 0f universal service. the guard as a whole would eventually prove to be the mainstay of the na- tior's defensive plans
 He has c..ec urder after order. made hy the war department to hinder and ruin the efficiency of the guard. In these orders according to the colonel. his troops have been made to come tip to standards of service. which the regular army itself cannot reach.
 Within the past two days. press dispatches from Washington have car ried news of the reports of the militia bureau and other heads of department
  ris believing that the guard should have fair play, has written the fol- lowing stateemEt which speaks elo- qgen;ly for itself:
 The acceptance of the figures gathered bv officers of the war de- pa~mert % discredit the nationa! guard without comment is unfair tG ;he guard The statement that T. 1.SS4 g;ardSmen out of total of l63. 500 frtnH evcrv reason to doubt But what fl the figures are true2 What if 60 per cent of the force were finally recruits Had the regular army been able q" recruit 10 it's required numbers it also would have had about GO per cent re cruits And even of the present strength of the army, large per Ceutage is recruits. The old soldiers are not remaining in the service as they formerly did, and these men must be replaced as far as possible with recruits. Had the regular army been able 10 meet the requirements placed rpOn it.. the necessity for call ing the national guard to do police drtv for the regular army would probably rot have arisen. Is it any far basis for a criticism of the na- tional guard that 1t was able to meet the requirements of the new law q s number of recruits in it's ranks when the regular army was not able to meet the requirements of the new law
 When the Arizona regiment ar rived at Douglas 1t found depleted regiments of the regular army there and these regiments are still depleted. The federal authorities refused to muster m a single company Of our q 10 l men to the company. Hardly a regu- lar company had tlat numOer of men or sine" The army has been remark ably able in covering up their de- ficiencies
 'The recent. report Of the acting chief of t'le militia bureau indicates that officer has no confidence in the national guard. How can any organi- Zation expect tO improve with officers in charge of It's affairs who doubt it's advisablity. who are inimical to it's success? Without giving the national guard any chance to meet the re- quirements Of The national defense act it's militaristic enemies are con demning it. Why the regular army qurements of that act. They are in worse position than the guard. they cannot even secure recruits. The army has a top heavy list of com missioned officers ,sltn no troops to train. The existence Of an efficient national guard is menace to tho success of :heir plan to secure enough recruits for the army by conscription. CompIlsors fraining3 The plan of our milit3rists is no' for c~-npr1~@--' training such as Germany has, under it's state otfic""s -,-lr
 nc pension roll. known as a retired lfrHH asna and men together and return them to civil life tC earn their living as the guardsmen must do Y Is ~lan '9 compel military service under tho