Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-08-03
NATIONAL GUARD CEASES ID EXIST
 AFTER AUGUST ] Executive Order of Presi- dent Results in Change to
 Federal Forces.
MAY BE ORDERED
 TO FOREIGN LANDS
Last Increment of State Organization Already Perfected Will Start Nov ing to Training Camps.-Later
 Bodies to Follow Course.

! Washington. Aug. 2.-Thc National
 guard of all the states will cease to exist as such after next Sunday, when | the last of the miltiamen will be mus tered into the American army Al ready the militia organizations of the
 most of the states have been federal | ized, leaving the forces of only few of the western and southwestern states to be mustered in on August ,. | Thereafter there will be no constitu- l tional or other legal barrier to the l transportation of the former guards organizations to France
 So far as is known no steps will be l taken in the different states to form new National guard regiments to take l the place of those that have entered l the national service. In some of the states arrangements are being dis cussed to form reserve battalions which will be stationed at regimental headquarters to care for the military property of the state, to fill gaps in the ranks of the drafted units and to perform such other military service as may be required.
 Although no official statement has been issued in regards to the matter. the opinion prevails in military cir cles here that no time will be wasted in getting the former National guards men to the war zone. Many Of the former militia regiments are as thor oughly seasoned as the regular troops. with whom they shared in service on the Mexican border. It is expected
 that many of the infantry regiments will be turned into artillery units in Europe, as has been the case With the British and French troops.
 The transfer of the state militia organizations to the federal service has been an enormous task owing to the mass of necessary detail. Much of the credit for it's successful accom- plishment belongs to Brig Gen. Will liam A. Mann, whose official duties as chief of the division of militia affairs have kept him at his desk in the War Department twelve hours a day or more during the past few weeks. General Mann is Pennsylvanian and has filled his present important post since the death of Gen. Albert L. Mills last year. He is an officer of wide experience. and was graduated from the United States Military acad- emy in 1875, when he was appointed second lieutenant of the seventeenth
 infantry
 The early service of General Mann
 was on the frontier. at Forts Sisseton, Lincoln, Russell. Custer and other
 military posts in Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas. In 1S90-91 he parti- cipated in the Pine Ridge campaign l against the Sioux Indians.
 Other subsequent duties included service in the Cuban campaign of 1898. in which he participated in the battle of Fl Caney, and was in the | trenches before Santiago until the sur
 rcnGer. In 1899 he went to the Philip pines. where he was engaged in active
 operations against insurgents in Lu-
 zon.
 General Mann took part in engage
 ments with the Filipino insurgents in | the Island Of Panay and the IslaAd of Pomblon. He was inspector general,
 Department of Visayas. and supervis-
 or of internal revenue and served as
 adiutant of the 17th infantry. | Returning to the United States he
 served at Fort Porter and Fort Mia
 gara. N. Y.. and conducted the depart
 ment of infantry rifle competition in l 1902 In 1903 he was again assigned
 to duty in the Philippines, where he
 served as chief of staff. Department of the Visayas.
 He was assistant chief of staff, d-
 vision of the Philippines. and after
 ward went on duty at the war college
 in this city and at the naval war col
 lege at Newport. He was on duty in Havana. Cuba, as assistant to the chief
 of staff of tho expedition there in 1906.
 and was later chief of staff of the
 army of, Cuban pacification For a
 time he was in command of the sixth
 infantry and the post of Fort William
 Henry Harrison, Mont. For many
 months prior to his appointment to- his present post as chief of the bu-
 reau of militia affairs he was in com
 mand of the second brigade on the
 Mexican border.