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Show Movement Launched for Rehabilitating Guard as Basic System of U. S. National Defense. Radical Change in Military Mili-tary Academy Is Advocated; Ad-vocated; Oppose Plans for Standing Force. A strong movement among the governors gover-nors of the United States for speedy rehabilitation re-habilitation of the national guard as the nation's basic system of defense, as opposed op-posed to the plans for a large standing army, was launched at the closing session of the conference of governors yesterday morning. Spirited discussion of the question, ques-tion, including denouncements of the military mili-tary caste, West Pointers and other regulars, reg-ulars, followed a paper on the national guard system, read by Governor William C. Sproul of Pennsylvania. Governor Henry J. Allen of Kansas, recently re-cently returned from France, vigorously denounced what he characterized as "the favoritism shown in favor of regular army . officers' and the displacement of nationar guard officers. He declared the army system developed by West Point not only Is un-American, but actually Prussian in its character. Every effort was made by regular army men to wreck the national guard, to completely destroy its identity, he said. West Pointers, in whom the men had little or no confidence, were put in command of units just before they went Into the front lines, while the old national guard commanders were sent down on the service of supply. BAKER'S PLAN OF ARMY DENOUNCED. Governor Allen advocated a radical change in the United States military academy acad-emy at West Point, designed to make it a graduate school for staff officers' training train-ing instead of a school for the training of professional soldiers. He urged the training train-ing of officer material in regular colleges, where young men would at the same time get a' broad, American Education, and that they be compelled to work in civil life for a certain period as well as serving in the ranks before becoming officers. Former Governor J. M. Carey of Wyoming, Wyo-ming, who has been attending the conference, con-ference, bitterly denounced the plans being be-ing made for a standing army of 600,000 or more. The American people do not want or need such an army, he said, if the national guard were maintained properly. prop-erly. This was not a military nation, and no one desires to make it a nation ruled by a military autocrauy, Mr. Carey declared. de-clared. An army of 25,000 men after the civil war was sufficient to form the basis for the army that fought the Spanish-American Spanish-American war, he said, and 60,000 men after the Spanish -American war proved sufficient for the formation of the army raised in the last war. AID FOR STRONG GUARD PLEDGED. Governor Cooper of South Carolina and Governor Stewart of MontRna also made stirring appeals for rebuilding and reorganizing reor-ganizing the national guard. Governor (Continued on Page 2, Column 2.) nous fob GUflRDREVIVAL Executives Denounce Army Caste and "Military Autocracy," (Continued From Page One.) Stewart declared a good national guard (jrani'aUun would do more than anything t-m-; lo lo.u-r and keep alive a genuine spirit of Arneri'-aiiisd and a re.spyct and uridt; tn the uniform of the army. (jovernor Jioln-rLHou ol" Oklahoma spoke in a niuie conciliatory v.tn as regards the ri-:;ula army, maintaining at t ire samo ti fin; that the national tuiard should be r-Miullt. Jie in not prepared to denounce the rt-ulars, life yaid, because some reat roinmaruh-rs in o:,r history had been West J'ointf.rs. Nevertheless, he admitted there miKht lie room for corrections, and expressed ex-pressed the belief that they could easily be made. The discussion opened with Governor SprouTs paper on the national guard, lie way called upon shortly after the opening open-ing of tiie coiii'erpnce yes terday morniip by former Governor Spry of Utah, who 1'tah, who was Invited to preside by Governor Gov-ernor Alien. Suffrage Address Lost. Tho only other question that arose during dur-ing the morning was a request from Mrs. Louisa Garnelt, asking permission for the women of Utah to address the executives briefly on the cause of suffrage and the ratification of the sutTrage amendment. The time was so short, however, that Mr. Spry said there would notthe tiino under the schedule arranged, and again the women were unablo to appear before the conference. After sketching briefly the history of tho national guard from the days of the original thirteen colonies, Governor Spruul in his strong paper discussed the record that national guard units had nlide in the European war, referring especially es-pecially to the Pennsylvania or Keystone division, which immortalized itself in France. Following the Spanish-American war, as the national guard became stronger and moj'o efficient, Governor Sproul said a feeling of opposition to It arose in the regular army among certain classes of mon, who felt that the guard was usurping usurp-ing certain of tlie regular army's prerogatives, preroga-tives, and who feared a lessening of the regular establishment due to the Increasing Increas-ing efficiency of the guard. Broad-minded Broad-minded officers of the regular army, he said, however, had always recognized and aided the national guard. Guard Proves Worth. Governor Sproul spoke of the time of tho trouble with Mexico in 1916, when President Wilson called out the regulars regu-lars and the guard. In spite of predictions predic-tions to tho contrary, he said, the guard fully demonstrated its ability to answer the call. At the outbreak of the border disturbance, he said, the paper strength of the guard was estimated at 130,000, ana that twelve days after the president's i call was issued the guard, had placed ; 912, 000 men on the border. In a month 1 and a half 110,000 men were there from , the guard, he said. "I cannot believe that our people will , ever authorize or maintain an enormous standing army, but will and always must , depend on their citizen soldiers for defense. de-fense. A large standing army makes pro- ; , fessional soldiers out of large numbers of , ; our best young men, takes them away ; from their vocations, removes them from 1 the industrial army, lessens production and in many cases places young men among men only, just at the time when the average young man makes a home for himself and becomes a producer and a family man. "The national guard, while it does not give a man the maximum of training that the regular army does, gives to the average av-erage man sufficient military training to make him an available soldier and at the same time enables him to continue his daily occupation, does not remove him from the army of producers and leaves him to follow his vocation and to settle on a life's work and future career." Pennsylvania Acts. Governor Sproul said that in Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania they already had begun actively to reorganize their national guard, and expected ex-pected to proceed with It as rapidly as possible. He objected, and was sustained by other governors, to the minimum set by congress of luO men to the company, saving that made the organization of units in the rural districts difficult, if not Impossible. He wanted sixty to sixty-five sixty-five as the minimum, he said. "We find a desire among the more seri-ous-nilndcd of our young men to rejoin the sta-te's military organization," said Governor Sproul. "Some of those who do not think so deeply profess to have been 'fed up' with military experience. This latter Is, happily, not true generally among those who were in the Keystone division, and the officers in this organization organiza-tion were most popular among tiie rank and file." It was esrreed, on motion of Governor Blckett of North Carolina, that the secretary sec-retary of the conference should write to every governor in the United States, requesting re-questing them to write briefs of their opinions of the national guard and the necessity for Its reorganization. As soon as these papers can be collected they will be printed, together with the discussions discus-sions at the meeting yesterday, and forwarded for-warded to every member of congress, as an expression of the views of the governors. gov-ernors. Governors, argued Governor FlWicett, were much closer to the people and their thoughts than the delegations in Washington, and he said he believed ;he members of congress would appreciate expressions on this question from the executives. ex-ecutives. Resolutions Adopted. Several resolutions of appreciation were adopted bv the governors yesterday morning morn-ing thanking those in Utah who had hen responsible for their entertainment. Included in the resolutions were expressions expres-sions of thanks and appreciation to Governor Gov-ernor and Mrs. Bamberger, the people of the state Mavor Ferry and the city officials offi-cials Muvor Browning and the city officials offi-cials of Ogdon, the Rotary club and the press of the city. Vestprdav afternoon, under the guidance of H C Gemmell, general manager, and other ofiicials of the Utah Copper com-panv. com-panv. a uartv of the executives and visiting visit-ing ' women visited the great mine at riiu'ham. The sight proved a revelation to most of the governors, who enthusiastically enthusi-astically declined that it alone was well worth the trip here. The ut-e of air patrols to help combat forest tires was advocated before the elosfng session of the governors' conference confer-ence yeptt.-rday by Governor Hen W. 01-cn'.; 01-cn'.; of (ircon. Governor "lcott told the governors ioimthir.g o: the good work done by the aeroplanes in Oregon and advised ad-vised his fellow governors to investigate the possibilities of patrolling danger areas with aeroplanes. Air Patrol Efficient. Saying that the air patro's which have hern used during the last summer on the Facif.c coast should be greatly extended, Governor (.'ieott read a letter which, had been revived from Coloiei H. 11. Arnold Ar-nold oftbe western department in which he said the pair. Ms had already discovered thirty-' our fires, and tha i were more p:a:ies available for the operations, that pracrieaKv every fire could be located almost al-most at origin and uutoid damage prevented. pre-vented. Gu ernor O'cott will confer further on this subj.-ct wi : h tiie governors from finest states during the trip through the V ci!'i wsLoi.e national r-a-1'k, with a view, perhr.ps, to establishing one organization ef aerial observers to cover all the. Western state.-.. .'it y-sterday's meeting of the executive commit if nf the I'.ague of public land Mrtti'S, organi.e-l at th" governors' ce-n-K-r.-:uu la.-ii Saturday, it was decided to present circular letters containing data and maps on the subject of the public domain to the members of congress, to prominent citizens and to the press throughout the country. Those present at the meeting were President O. A. Larrazolo, governor of New Mexico; Governor Robert W. Carev of Wyoming, Governor Slioup and Edward LJ. Y6ung chairman of the soldier settlement settle-ment board of New Mexico, who Is secretary secre-tary of the league of states. To Urge Domain Plan. The governors will take home with them the problem of getting the matter of the public domain before their people. They will ask their representatives in congress to formulate a bill which will ask congress to cede the public domain to the states without reservations, mineral or otherwise, other-wise, according to announcement of the committee. It is expected soon to call a meeting of the governors of the pubic land states at Washington, where they will get a hearing before the public lands committees of the senate and the house of representatives. As the last official ceremony of their stay here, the governors, who closed their conference yesterday, paid a call on the first presidency of the L. D. S. church Immediately after their adjournment at the state capitol. Feeling that the governors gov-ernors should not depart without gaining some first-hand information concerning; the church, B. F. Grant extended the governors gov-ernors an invitation to call. The governors called at the church offices of-fices and met Presidents Grant, Anthon 1T. Laind and Charles W. Penrose, the apostles, and Presiding Patriarch Hvrum G. Smith. President Smith promised the executives to send each of them a number num-ber of books concerning Mormonism. Yesterday Yes-terday was one of the very few occasions upon which the church officials have left their Thursday conference in the temple. All of the governors who cou'd packed their official woes and problems last night and shipped them home before starting on a three-day tour of the Yellowstone Yel-lowstone National park. A car of them left at S:30 yesterday evening ' on the Yellowstone special and will not return until early Monday. The official mcmhers of the party include in-clude Governor and Mrs. Thorn ns K. Campbell of Arizona. Governor Oliver H. Phoup of Colorado and family. Governor John O. Townsend, Jr:. of Delaware and son. Governor Henry J. Allen of Kansas and family. Governor J. A. A. Eurnqnist of Minnesota and family. Governor Samuel Sam-uel R. McKelvie of Nebraska, Governor O. A. T-arrpznjo of New Mexico, Governor and Mrs. Thomas W. Pickett of North Carolina. Governor and Mrs. P.n W. O!-Cott O!-Cott of Oregon, Governor and Mrs. J. P. A. Rohr'son of Oklahoma, Governor and Mrs. Willinm C. Sproul of Pennsylvania, Governor R. A. Cooper of South Carolina, Caro-lina, former Governor Joseph W, Cnrey of Wyoming and his son. Governor Robert P. C;i rey of Wyoming, former Governor and Mrs. Y'i!!''''n Sprv of Ft ah. former Governor and Mrs. ITeber M. Wells nf T'tah. Governor and Mr-. Ra mi ercer. OomTiisoTM-r C'av Taiiman and Mrs. Ta';m.m. K. P. Yotm. chairrnn n of tiie sold'er settlement ho;i rd of A rizonn : A, F. Phillips. Gonrge F. Hnlc, William Tiv-nr Tiv-nr Iciehart. IT. G Whitney, Harry Weston Wes-ton and A. N. M Kay. Today's srh.-du'.e will take the erov-ernors'fmm erov-ernors'fmm Yellow." f one stftion, where they ar'-ive at R o'olo.-k. to Old Faiihfu' Ton. where in the evening a Pp'Mal informal infor-mal entertainment will he given in their honor. Tomorrow the-,- will journey to Yellowstone Yellow-stone c.nyon for nn all-nlvrbt st;iy at te I'nrvon hot-1! and next day bark to Vol-lows'one Vol-lows'one station, thence to their home states. |
