The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1917-02-16
VOLUNTEERS ARE ONLY FIT FOR
UNITED STATES SOLDIERS
Ocala, Fla, Feb. II, 1917.

is said, has not as many men in it as
the law specifies.
The deficiency in the number of
soldiers in the ranks stirs some army
officers to suggest that the army
should be completed by compulsory
military service.
The papers quote Mr.. Parker as ia
yoring universal military training
which means universal consumption
into military service.
If his bill would conscript our
youths of less than % years old into
compulsory military training-which
means into compulsory military slav-
ery-then his bill would debauch and
ruin the manhood of our country for
all future generations.
They are bold enough to say that
militia men are inefficient soldiers.
This talk is complimentary to Meth
er their intelligence nor their patriot
ism.
1t is not proof of patriotism for a
man to favor enlaarging the army by
conscription.
The army that won the independ-
ence of this country from Great Brit
ain was composed of volunteers.
The army that won the battle of
New Orleans was composed of volun-
teers.
The army that won the Black Hawk
war was composed of volunteers.
The army that won the Mexican
war was composed of volunteers.
The army that rescued Cuba from
Spanish murderers was composed of
volunteers.
Every patriot in our country is
thankful to the Giver of Blessings for
our government because, whether the
president is a democrat or republi-
can, he is chosen by the voluntary
votes of a majority of our people, and
the primary-fundamen law if it is.
"All government derives its just
powers from the consent of the gov
erned."
Therefore it is fair and right that
all military power controlling our
army should come from the consent
of our soldiers who endure the hard
ships and do the fighting.
love our government for the prin
ciples it enfolds and for the liberty
for which it provides.
The blood of both my grandfathers
mixed on, fields of battle with that of
other volunteers--colonial soldiers
who fought for the independence Of
the colonies from British thraldom.
/ heard my mothers father, Hollo-
way Pass, and comrade of his in
the colonial army, Mr.. Shade, talk
of their colonial soldier experiences,
and of their fighting side by side in
the battle of Guilford Court House.
Each of them, when heard them talk
of their colonial soldier experiences,
was over eighty years Old Both of
them lived in Carswell county, North
Carolina. Though they were warm
friends after the war of the revolu-
ton they brought home some twenty
miles distant from each other and had
not met one another for several
years, and with almost rejuvenating
joy they recounted their thrilling ex-
periences as colonial soldiers for the
independence of our country from
British oppression.
They were volunteer soldiers, and
fought for liberty, and not for the con-
scription of their descendants, nor
the descendants of their fellow colo
NAL soldiers into enslaving military
servitude.
The assertion that the militia are
inefficient soldiers has the smell of
seeking for employment of West
Pointers, and is contradicted by the
services of our militia from"the rude
bridge that spans the Flova" to the
surrender of CORVALLIS.
In 1861 man by the name of Kirk
patrick, or Fitzpatrick. who had been
TO West Point was made colonel of a
North Carolina regiment, then in
camp at Danville, Va. DR.. James l..
Cabell was walking with me from one
hospital to another, and that socalled
colonel galloped the horse he was rid.
ing so close to DR.. Labell that he had
to hurry out of the way, and DR.. Ca
bell. one of the professors at the Uni
versity of Virginia, said he believed
that fellow would have ridden his
horse over him. That shows the big
ness of the impudence of the West
Pointer. That same fellow took those
stalwart young men TO Gordonsville,
Va, and had them to double quick till
very hot and then marched them