Show army reserve the crisis through which we are passing has brought forcibly to our mind the urgent need of an army reserve for use in time of national peril it should be a force inexpensive to maintain yet effective for immediate service when our country is s invaded the best most practical and by far the least expensive method of maintaining such a force would be to remove the national guard or state militia from state supervision and place it unreservedly under the control of the federal government L ern ment as a reserve corps of the regular army it could then be brought up to a maximum strength of in times of peace properly officered and equipped and would be a valuable support to the regular army in the initial stages of an invasion and pending the raising of an army of volunteers a proceeding which requires many months of valuable time its presence as a federal armed force in the several states would act as a greater deterrent upon the lawless element than it would a as s a state organization of militiamen for the strong arm of the government reaches far and shows but little of favoritism |