The Cordova daily times., 1920-12-28
0RCANIZINCOF STATE GUARD
 BIG PROBLEM
BY COL. WINFIELD JONES

1 BY COL. WINFIELD JONES
 WASHINGTON, Dec. 2s.-(Special Correspondence)- What of the flu
 ture of the national guard? This
 question is now engaging the atten-
 tion of members of congress, national guard officers, and officials at the
 war department.
 Soon after war was declared and 1 the United States went in on the side of the allies the national guard was l mustered into the service of the Unit
 ed States and became federal troops.
 This left the country without any na-
 tional guard. The lack of a guard was
 felt in many places particularly where
 enet1y spies were active. Formation ! of home Euards"' and other local or
 ganization was undertaken fh many cities, but these never amounted to
 much. however willing and patriotic
 their members, simply because the war department paid no attention to these organizations. They we're with out arms and equipment, uniforms, or instructors in many instances.
 1n other cities and in some states new national guard were organized to take the place of those mustered into the federal service. This oc- cured only in a few states, however. The state that raised the biggest and most efficient new guard was Texas. Three full brigades were organized in that state under the able supervision of Governor Hobby and Adjutant Gen. erals Harley and Cope. These troops compared favorably with any national guard organizations. They were ade- quately armed, uniformed, and equipped. Their officers went to school and the three rev brigades were on the point of being mustered into federal service and probably would within a short time have been sent to France had not the armistice intervened There brigades were af- rewards turned into cavalry divi- sion. Texas is now the only state with full division of national guard cav airy. It is reported this Texas cav airy division is one of the best nation al guard organizations ever formed, thanks to Governor Hobby and Adju- tant General Cope, who succeeded Ad- jutant General Harley some time ago.
 New York, Wisconsin. Illinois, and Pennsylvania are the only states that now have anywhere near the national guard organization that exists today in Texas. . At this writing the organized strength of the new national guard, only numbers about 5000 officers and men. The authorized strength at present is 11O,O00
 The old national guard, as guard ceased to exisst with the American troops were mustered out after war ended. The war department, there fore, at the beginning of the armistice, i was faced with the problem of build ing up complete new national guard. It has been a difficult job.
 Always among the veterans of any war there is an indifference, not to say hostility, to peace time service in the national guard. The present is no exception to the rule. As prac- tically every young man in the Unit ed States was either in the service during the war or registered for ser vice these men now feel no desire to connect themselves with national guard. That is the principal reason why recruiting the new national guard has proved so difficult to the war department. There are other reasons too numerous to mention in this article that will be discussed at a later date, as to why there is great difficulty at this time in organizing new national guard
 As it seems certain that congress will not pass a universal military bill at this session, or in fact at any ses- sion, because, principally. such sys- tenn would cost s1,00O,0O0 900 annu- ally many senators and representa- tives are anxious that big national guard be secured as soon as possible. Many members of congress, in lieu of universal military training sys- tenn, believe that the only safety of the country lies in strong national guard. Many would like to see the new national guard number at least 100000 officers and men. A large regular army is out of the question booouSa op tho i,nmapSa ooct co thai