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Show State Militia and Discipline. I It Is understood that thero will be no union 1 of U. S. soldiers with state guards in annual ma- jfl neuvers. We are sorry for this on many accounts. I Praotioally all tho young men of our country I should have at least a month's training every I year, and if the olosing week could be a -week I of maneuvering with regular soldiers and with I regular army officers in charge, there would ho I a double incentive for young men to enroll their I names on tho militia lists. The states should I pay the expenses of this and look upon it as an insurance fund. It would be a benefit in 'very m many ways. It would give the young men some I idea of the work of a battle; a clear idea of how mon in mass are handled in war; it would teach I them the duties of camp and field and how bet I ter to meet emergencies in civil life; make them I more thoughtful and self-reliant, and impress on I them in a new way the duties of citizenship. It I would, moreover, stir the germ of patriotism in I their souls! to a more vigorous life. If later in I life there should be a call for volunteers, there I would be no such nervous forebodings as comes with entire ignorance of military duties In time H of war. H We have but a small army, not large enough H to make skeleton regiments In case a great war H were to be precipitated upon the country, and Hj hence there is the more need of effective state or- ganizations. H With the rule established and enforced to give all the young men of tho state the preliminary H training which may bo called the elementary S branch of a military education; to have the fl militia of two or three states united with a con-9 con-9 tingent of regular troops, for a week's maneuvers B every year, it would be easier to keep the ranks flj of the regular army filled. Then from this mis' mi-s' litia should be selected each state's contingent B for West Point and Annapolis, the commanding I officers .to select them. There should be prizes offered beside, and the names of tho winners should have a place in the archives of the!? respective re-spective states. XTy . I II ll . . -i, ... 11 iu The influence of young men trained that way, trained to ' understand what army discipline means and the respect due to law, would have a most healthy effect upon every stale. Of course when a war comeis a few months' discipline will make an effective army out of volunteers, but every time this has been done In our country, tho cost has been very great. Generally the first cost is in camp. Think of the useless sacrifices of life by disease in the camp of Chlckamauga, where the volunteers wore stationed sta-tioned in preparation for a po"ssible descent on Cuba. There was no one to direct the laying out of the camp, there were no sufficient tents or blankets or clothes; no Intelligent work to see that the water supply was kept pure. The result was that more men died there of disease than died in our army from all causes in Cuba. When a sudden Avar is sprung and volunteers are rushed to tho front, then thousands of lives are lost through the incompetency of officers and men. In the great civil war, the deaths from this cause and from camp diseases,, which, with a little knowledge, might have been avoided, numbered tens of thousands in the northern armies, and probably a great many in the southern south-ern army. And all that kind of work Is but a form of murder. |