The Jersey City News

MILITIA SHAKE-UP.
Brigades Will Be Consolidated and Number of Officers Reduced.

[SPECIAL TO "THE JERSEY CITY NEWS."]

TRENTON, Nov. 15, 1899.-There is to be a reduction in the roster of the officers of the National Guard within the next few months, which will place that organization on a regular army footing. The reduction is not to be confined to the officers having regular commands, but there will be a general shake-up in the list of officers on the retired list, who are entitled to wear all the gilt lace of their various ranks on special State occasions. Governor Voorhees yesterday announced a special commission to take up the work of reorganization. The commission is to go over present statutes relating to the National Guard and condense and codify them. Major-General William J. Sewell, commander of the division, is at the head of the commission. The other members are General Bird W. Spencer, General Peter F. Wanser, General Edward A. Campbell, Commander Washington Irving and Captain Barton B. Hutchinson. The last named is a lawyer, being judge advocate of the Second Regiment.

The creation of this commission has been under consideration for some time, and those who are posted on the matter say that the work of the commission will be a change in the construction of the guard. There will be an abolition of very many positions of high rank, while a few minor offices that are needed in the service will be created. The staffs of the Quartermaster General and the Inspector General of Rifle Practice are to be abolished, and the ranks of many of the high grade officers will be cut down so as to compare with the regular army. Officers who have been breveted will not be entitled to appear at public functions wearing the uniform of their advanced rank, and provision will be made for dropping officers from the retired list after a certain age limit.

A well posted military officer in discussing the proposed condensation and alteration of the National Guard law, said that it is likely that the division of the National Guard will be abolished, the two brigades now existing being consolidated into one. This will not reduce the number of men in the service, but will cut the list of officers in half.

One brigade staff and the division staff will be entirely dispensed with. The adjutant of the brigade will only have the rank of captain. The inspector-general and judge advocate-general will have the rank of colonel, instead of brigadier-general, as at present. The offices of the assistant adjutant-general and deputy adjutant-general will in all probability be abolished.

There will be no reductions until the expiration of existing commissions or the officers resign. The changes will bring relief from the top-heaviness which has weighed down the New Jersey National Guard for many years.