The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1910-12-28
TAFT DEGREES WAR TALK AND
OPPOSES BIG STANDING ARMY

paredness of the country for war by
saying:
1--WE probably ought to see to it that
we have ammunition and guns enough
for ready use in cases of emergency.
We have a small, but very efficient
army of $4,000 men. We have a mill
tia of about $4,000 men. The army is
so constituted that we could enlarge it
from a skeleton organization into a
much larger body. We ought to have
more trained officers so as to furnish
the teachers to larger body of men
that war might require us to enlist.
There has been a good deal of talk
in the papers and some reference in
Congress to the supposed helpless con-
dition of this country in the event of
a foreign invasion. venture to think
that much more has been made of this
than the facts, calmly considered,
would justify.
eve have very good Navy, and
with the opening of the Panama canal
it will be a much more effective one.
1t will be useful to prevent the COM
ing of an invading army across the
seas.
NO GREAT STANDING ARMY.
THE people of this country will
never consent to the maintenance of a
standing army which military experts
will pronounce sufficiently large to
cope in battle with the standing arm
les of European countries, should they
get by our Navy, avoid our harbor de-
lenses and descend upon our coast. If
this leaves us in a position of help
lessness, then so be it, For those
who understand the popular will in
this country know that it cannot be
otherwise"
In deprecating the idea of a war
scare, the President said that "little
more forethought, little more atten-
ton to the matter on the part of Con-
gress, and we shall have all of the
Army and all of the munitions and
material for war that we ought to
have in a republic situated as we
are 5000 miles on the one hand, and
5000 miles on the other, from the
source of hostile invasion.
Our army is much more expensive
per man than that of any other nation,
and it is not an unmixed evil that it
is so, because it necessarily restricts
us to the maintenance of force which
is indispensable in the ordinary polio
ing of this country and our depen-
denotes, and furnishes an additional
reason for our using every endeavor
to maintain peace
PRAISE FOR THE CARNEGIE GIFT.
Il congratulate this association on
the recent foundation of Carnegie, by
which, under the wise guidance of
Elihu Root, Mr.. Knox and their asso-
ciates, an income of 100000 annually
is to be expended in the practical pro-
motion of movements to secure per-
manent peace. The wide discretion
given to the trustees, and their known
ability, foresight and common sense,
insure the usefulness of the gift"
Speaking of the achievements in
the past of courts of arbitration, Pre-
sident Taft said: IF now we can ne
gotiate and put through a positive
agreement with some of the great ma
tons to abide the adjudication of an
international arbitral court In every
issue which cannot be settled by ne
gotiation, no matter what it involves,
whether honor, territory or money, we
shall have made a long step forward
by demonstrating that 1t is possible
for two nations at least to establish as
between them the same system of due
process of law that exists between in
dividuals under a government"
z-k