The twice-a-week Twin Falls times. (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1916-1918, 1917-04-24
THE OLD CONsCRIPTION

The following is not from the CON
scription bill whose enactment the
president is seeking to secure but
from an act of congress, signed on
May 8, 1892, by one George Wash
ington, says the Eugene (Oregon)
Guard:
That each and every free ablebodied,
white male citizen of the respective
states, residents therein, who is or
shall be of the age of eighteen years,
and under the age of forty-five years
Except as herein excepted), shall,
severally and respectively, be enrolled
in the militia by the captain or COM
manding officer of the company, with
in whose bounds such citizen shall re-
side, and that within twelve months
after the passing of this act. And it
duty of every such captain or COM
manding officer of a company to en-
roll every such citizen as aforesaid,
and also those who shall, from time
to time, arrive at the age of eighteen
years, or, being the age of eighteen
years and under the age of forty-five
shall come to reside within his bounds,
and SHALL without delay, notify such
citizen of the said enrolment by a
proper non-commissioned officer Of
the company, by whom such notice
may be proved. That every citizen so
enrolled and notified shall within six
months thereafter provide himself
with good musket or firelock, a suf-
ficient bayonet and belt, two spare
flints, and a knapsack, a pouch, with
a box therein to contain not less than
twenty-four cartridges, suited to the
bore of his musket or firelock, each
cartridge to contain a proper quantity
of powder and ball. or with a good
rifle, knapsack, shot pouch, and pow
der horn, twenty balls suited to the
bore of his rifle, and a quarter of
pound of powder: and shall appear,
so armed, accoutred and provided,
when called out to exercise or into
service, except that when called out
on company days exercise only he
may appear without knapsack. That
the commissioned officer shall sever
ally, be armed with a sword or hang
er and spontoon and that from and
after five years from the passing of
this act all muskets for arming the
militia, as herein required shall be
of bores sufficient for balls of the
eighteenth part of a pound, and every
citizen so enrolled and providing him
self with the arms, ammunitions, and
accoutrements required as aforesaid,
shall hold the same exempted from all
suits, distress, executions, or sales for
debt or for the payment of taxes.
Consumption represents not an in
noviation, but a return to a principle
whose validity was recognized at the
country's very beginning. Not only
was every ablebodied male citizen
soldier, but was required to equip him
self at his own expense.
Our forefathers were too well in
structed in the essentials OF democ-
racy to regard universal service as
anti-democratic. They were not afraid
of the militarism that assumed it to
be the duty Of all, when necessity
arose, to share in the common defense.
The past told them that a free people
must have arms and the ability to use
them. So strong were their convic
tions that they inserted in their con-
situations express prohibitions against
legislation denying or limiting the
right to possess arms. They saw the
evils and the injustice of the volun-
teer system during the Revolutionary
War, and one OF their first acts was
to indorse CONSUMPTION as a national
policy.