The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1910-12-29
TALKS ON DEFENSE
OF PACIFIC COAST
And California Officer, While Not
an AIarmist, Is Not an
Optimist.


! SACRAMENTO, December 10. = The
| California Coast is totally unprepared
for war. believes Adjt.-Gen. J. b. Lauck,
on account of too small militia force.
which has been kept small through the
/ failure of the armorv board. consisting
| of Governor Gillett, Attorney General
| Webb and Mayor Mccarthy of San
Francisco, to expend $4,000 appropri-
ated at the last legislature for an ar
| mory and equipment in San Francisco.
eve should have sixteen companies
of coast artillery, fourteen of them
at San Francisco said Lauck today.
whereas at present we have but nine,
seven in San Francisco and two in San
/ Diego. That's what the war depart
. ment desires-for US to organize more
I. companies.
.'Our great difficulty is not organ
lzing, but rather i'll securing housing
facilities. f we had buildings suitable
| for housing and taking care of an or
ganization similar TO those they have
IN other large cities, there is no ques-
ton III my mind but that we would have
full ranks and more men than we really
need Sufficient appropriation for such
a building for San Francisco lit amount
ed to $420,0G0) was made by the leeis-
lature two years ago. but so far not a
shovel of earth has been turned to make
! the construction of that building pos
sible
Forts Far Apart.
''San Francisco has the best fortified
harbor in the world, vet how far do we
have to 60 to see another fortified place
on the Coast. The next fortified place
is down at San Diego, FIVE hundred
miles distant. Great gods, That's
proper protection. Again, on the north,
We have to 90 clear up to Washington,
to the mouth of the Columbia River, be-
fore we find any more Notifications.
L see no reason for ANYTHING to
prevent transports from landing troops
from anywhere around those interior
points and coming inland and taking
possession of all the transportation lines
and passes. Who or what is going to
stop them?
''You have got to have mobile
army to do these things and vo1 have
not got sufficient men in your present
army. There could not be to exceed
5000 men of our own army, if that
many, landed about the coast here IN
two months time.
Not an Alarmist
81 am not at all an alarmist. |
don t say that there viii be war or
anything of the kind but | know as
every military man knows, that We
are not properly equipped. | think we
have something like 3o9,542 men sub
ject to military duty in this State, yet
out of that our defensive establish
ment numbers only about 1000 men of
all arms-coast artillery, infantry,
cavalry, signal corps and naval mill
tarv That is very small percent
age for the number Of men available. >
Gen. Lauck believes also that the
antipathy of employers toward having
their employees serve in the State
militia is doing much to retard the
growth Of the organization.
''When we take into consideration.
he said, ''that these young men join
the militia for the sole purpose of
gaining knowledge in the military
line and for patriotism. without one
cent of revenue from either the State
or Nation, and then are often threat
ened by their employers that if they
90 to camp they will be discharged,
we can readily understand why we
have not a bigger force in the organ
lied militarv.''