The Unsung Militia: A Push for National Readiness
A proposed Congressional bill aims to overhaul the state militia system with federal funding, training, and equipment to ensure national security without maintaining a large standing army.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
On the recommendation of Adjutant General Drum, the military committee of the United States Senate reported a bill to reorganize the entire military system. The bill provides for an active militia of 600 men to each representative in Congress, which would give the country an active force of about 300,000 men. This force is to be armed, equipped, and uniformed at Government expense, and drilled in armories and annual encampments. The idea is not new, but the current burden of maintenance falls heavily on states and individual members. A well-organized, thoroughly drilled militia of 300,000 men would be a force available in an emergency to stand in the breach until the great reserve forces of the Republic could be armed and drilled. The bill leaves the organizations as State troops under the command of state Governors, but aims to render the service more effective through increased appropriations and a uniform system of inspection.
“The maintenance of a large standing army has always been deprecated by the American people.”
This 1883 debate over the balance between a professional 'standing' army and a locally-based, federally-supported force prefigures modern arguments about the role and funding of the National Guard in domestic versus international missions.
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