The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-24

purposes our frontier is many times nearer
Europe side and Asia the other
than it was in the days OF sailing ships
MUST COUNT THE COST.
Moreover, a nation which begins to play
a great part in the world must count the
cost and be willing to 1T unless 1t Is con-
| tent to accept humiliation. AS result or
the Spanish war We took world position.
which has never hitherto been ours.
I'VE now have before US q destiny which
must be one of great failure or great sue
cess. We cannot play a small part in the
world. no matter how much we might wish
to- We shall be obliged, willingly or un-
willingly, to play a large part. All that We
| can determine is whether will play that
large part well or i'll.
People cannot make the crisis. What
| they have to do is face 1t when made. You
| cannot. by fiinching from a great oppor-
| tunity, destroy IL: you won't make II non
| existent. You merely answer it badly. In
ls6l there were plenty of people who CRIED,
| Peace, peace, when there was no peace
| In 81 there were plenty of people who spent
their time In bemoaning the fact that the
| catastrophe had come, but thanks TO the
| Giver of Good, we had men who had iron
| in their blood; who. instead of mourning
| that the crisis had come, faced the crisis
and wrested victory from it.
The war had come. You could only de-
eide whether Ii was to be victory or
defeat. And 1 ask merely that we learn
| Alright the lesson that you wrought with
your blood, that you wrought with every
exertion of valor and courage that there
was in you to make.
I'VE are a great world power. We can
| not. if we would. help ourselves from be-
| ing a great world power. All we can de-
eide is whether we will play our part well
| or Ill.
owing to our position we do not need
| large regular army. Two or three years
ago you remember how 1t was prophesied
alarmsts that 1t was the intention of those
in power continually to increase the size
of our regular army until 1t should become
| a menace TO our people at home.
How comic the prophecy now seems. AS
a matter of fact, at the present time ad-
vantage has been taken of the Philippine
| peace TO reduce the army to but little more
| than two-thrds of the number allowed by
| law. Our army is small, but the individual
units composing Ii we believe to be not In
ferior to the best of those of any foreign
| nation. And it is our purpose. beginning
| with the present year, to institute a series
of maneuvers which shall offer some OPP
| portunity for training our officers to handle
| their men in masses.
1--WE were told that the large standing
army, and especially you that had come
back from the Philippines would be jan
nissaries and menance to our liberties.
But, my dear sirs, all 1 am afraid about
the people is that they forget what you
II don't have to say. when speaking to
an audience like this, that L stand by the
regular army, and am proud of them.
Every good American Is proud of them
and those that fought by their side the
proudest.
Normally, however, in any contest we
must expect that in the future, I'm the
past, the bulk of the American army will
be composed Of volunteers. 1t should be
our object in every way to encourage the
them up TO the highest point of efficiency.
TO give them proper arms and teach
them how to use these arms. and how to
take care OF themselves in field service.
1.-THE kind Of training In which believe
is the kind of training that counts, the
kind of training that makes a man fit for
work when he is called out TO do the work,
so that a who has a uniform and a
rife will know how to march, will know
how to take care of himself in the open,
and know o;v how tHS to handle that rifle We
tlemen, We are a great and rich people,
and / feeel thoroughly ashamed every
time 1 see national guardsman with a
ut would be cruel shame to send men
armed with such inferior weapons against
a foe of at all equal capacity armed with
better weapons. We need the good weapon.
After you have got it, remember it is the
man that counts more than the weapon in
the long run. A good man with bad
weapon will be beaten by another good man
with good weapon. But If you have the
best rife in existence and you haven't the
right stuff In you, you will be beaten by a
good man with club.
QUALITIES DO NOT CHANGE.
Tactics change and weapons change, but
fundamental qualities that make the soldier
do not change You of the Grand Army
fought the war through to a triumphant
finish, and saw Appomattox come to crown
|, the four grim years of alternate victory
! and defeat, because you had in you the
| tho SOn1 he loff hot
men had who followed Washington to York
town. And so you and /, my comrades, we
! Of the younger generation, If ever-which
earnestly hope and believe is impossible
|. If ever we shall have to face a serious foe,
we shall fight with different weapons from
those of the men who fought at Shiloh,
at Gettysburg, at Missionary Ridge and
Five Forks; We shall fight with different
tactics, obey different commands, have diff
ferent uniforms; but If we shall win, it will
be because the same spirit drives us that
| drove them on to victory in "a.
when We come to the navy, however
there is no chance if improvising vol
unteer navy. The average American, we
believe, offers unusually good material out
, of which to make a soldier-a man who
already possessed the fighting edge and
needs only to have ii developed, and who
readily learns how to march, to shoot and
to take care of himself in the open.
But no man can in a short time learn
: such highly specialized work as is that
, aboard our great modern warships. One OF
: these ships cannot be built under three
years, and the officers and enlisted mer
, aboard her would be absolutely helpless tC
, make use of the formidable engines of de-
struction ready for their hands unless they
had enjoyed periods of training ranging In
accordance to the station of the man from
a dozen months to twice many years NJ
! powerful fighting vessel, and still less al
effective fighting crew, can be improviseC
after the outbreak of war.
1.-The vessels that went into Manila with
Dewey went in under the presidency OF
Mckinley. but they had been built under
| Harrison, under Cleveland under Arthur
There wasn't vessel in Dewey's fleet tina
had been built, not merely before the out
, break of the war. but before the life of the
dent under whom the war had been fought
The vessels had been built from three Il
dozen years, and the crews on then
I had been trained to their professions BY
month In and month out, by year in ant
year out of practicing that profession a
sea, learning how to make use of the deli
cate and formidable mechanism which wa:
| intrusted to them.
"Courage OF course they showed cour
age! / don't think that il is saying any
thing to distinguish one American soldie
} or sailor from another soldier and sailo
10 say that he showed courage. But Their
was plenty OF courage and devotion among
. the Spaniards opposite them-but the.
didn't hit, that was the point. Dewey
| men did, Now, you have to have tn
: courage first, you have to have the es
{ | sential qualities out of which to make TIL
soldier or sailor, but when you go into
highly specialized work like that of hand
| ling modern haV