Ogden Daily Standard | 1914-01-20 | Page 10 | Militia Conditions Unsatisfactory

MILITIA CONDITIONS UNSATISFACTORY Washington. D. C Jau. 19.' Conditions Condi-tions in the organized militia of the country are, on the whole, far from satisfactory in organization, In strength, and in training according to Brigadier General A. L. Mills, chief of the division of militia affairs, of the war department, in his annual report today In his opinion, the militia's organization is top heavy, incomplete, and unbalanced; its strength is much below the important item necessary for field service and in training is on the average far below the standard required re-quired for officers in time of need General Mills declares, however, that numerical strength in the mili tia the past year was one of consld erable progress and improvement. The loss in number has brought about increased in-creased efficiency and he bellevs that the result will be an Increase in strength both in organization and In, personnel. General Mills believes that thl& improvement im-provement may be made more cer tain by enactment of a militia pay law He strongly urges federal and state co-operation on the ground that the organized militias welfare can be fostered only in that way. The time has arrived, he says, for the department to formulate a scheme for theoretical instruction of the militia mili-tia for all the states Some of the states are severely criticised cri-ticised for failure to take proper care of the government properly so that about a million dollars was dropped, or carried on a suspended account. In one state, of the total number of rifles ri-fles on hand, there were not enough serviceable ones to equip the troops for target practice.