The San Francisco call., 1910-11-18

| things, and let us go on fighting un-
! ceasingly until we get them
General Charles +. Morton of Seattle,
a retired United States army officer,
appeared as the representative of Sen
ator Piles of Washington. He took
! as his theme coast defense" and
spoke from a rich experience of 40
years in the service. He warned spe-
/ cially against unpreparedness for war.
! He said
1--WE. as people. knowing our enor-
| nous resources in men and material,
| think we are perfectly safe and that
1 we could resist the attacks of any ma
| tion. Perhaps we could in time, but 1t
takes time No nation, no combina-
ton Of nations, will attack us when
we are prepared They will attack
only when they are fully prepared and
when they know that we are not pre-
/ pared. But it takes time to prepare.
PREPARE NOW, HE SAYS
I'm our life today there is always a
clashing Of interests. II every man IN
your city would obey every law all
the time you would have no need for
policemen. But they don't. SO it is
with nations. There is always a
clashing of interests.
In the history OF our country, we
have had war every generation. I'm
! less there is some great change in our
/ civilization. we will have war. There
/ fore. we must prepare for war. Prep
4 aratfon does not lie in latent resources
Of men and material. China is an IL
lustration of this fact There you find
400. 600 600 men and abundant resources.
But what is China today but the foot
| ball among nations? She has the
strength, but she is not prepared.
! $50 / say we are not safe. If any
nation or combination of nations, re-
peat. intends to attack us, they will do
il when they are fully prepared and we
are unprepared.
when we acquired Porto Rico and
| Hawaii it was recognized that some
| thing would have to be done for their
protection, but they have become ele-
ments of weakness.
MUST HAVE FLEET
1T is true we could stop ships or men
coming into our bays, but they could
/ land Is or 90 miles away and
march upon us. For protection, the
| first force must be fleet. 1t must De
/ kent intact In the Pacific we have
Alaska and the Philippines. We must
not only have a considerable feet, but
] outposts for these stations. We must
| also have cavalry, light artillery ana
/ infantry that can be rushed TO points
of necessity. A small force can resist
a landing, but once landed the enemy
| Is your equal
! II am not an alarmist, but we must
face the actual conditions. Our popula-
/ ton and the methods of warfare have
changed since the civil war"
The speaker declared that at the out
break of the war with Spain this coun-
try was wholly unprepared. The cloth
had not even been woven, he said, from
| which the blankets, tents and clothing
for the army was to be made.
Its pretty pearly as bad now" he
said, mot quite so bad.
I'm all our seacost states" he con-
tinued 1--WE ought to have great
| militia organizations The interior OF
the United States is filled with great
| army posts that should be at coast
points. When they come, you won't
know for what point they will make.
| IT may be Los Angeles, San Diego or
some other point We should be pre-
pared with our coast stations. The
| great danger lies in the first blow.
II will take 10 times as much to re-
cover from such blow as to make
the necessary preparations to avoid it
PEOPLE MUST KNOW TRUTH
Il don't want it understood that
am criticising the administration or
the government They are doing as
well as they can. 1t is the people
who ought to be brought to realize
these things.
MY only interest is to see the coun-
try prepared so that it may avoid war.
II is a miktaken idea that armies want
war. They want peace. They fight
for peace. Our best safeguard for
peace is preparedness for war"
A B. Manley of Portland pledged
the state of Oregon to newborn coast
unity.
Andrew Carrigan of San Francisco
spoke of the Importance of the new
movement. He pointed out that the
western states were outvoted in con-
gress by the city of New York alone
He argued that legislation was in
spired from the large voting centers,
and that headway could be gained by