Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-12-16
WAR SCARE FIASCO.
Secretary Dickinson Sends Report the
House Cannot Receive.

secretary DICKINSON SenoS hePoTt IHe
House Cannot Receive.
A sensational report from the war
department showing that the country
is inadequately protected against inva-
sion from foreign governments was
sent to the house Wednesday as a Sc
cret document, and after number Of
conferences and hurried telephone
messages. was returned to the war de-
partment on the ground that The hruse
could not receive a secret report.
Members who saw the document be-
fore its withdrawal say it is a report
of ]. M. Dickinson, secretary of war;
that 1t points out that the country Is
wholly unprepared; that there is a
woeful inadequacy Of men, of guns and
of ammunition; that the army should
be reorganiZed and that a council Of
national defense, with the secretary of
war at it's head, should be created by
congress. The report of Gen. Wood,
which was marked confidential" dealt
with these matters and gave official
admission to matters that are Of more
or less common knowledge among
army and navy experts in this coun-
try and abroad. In fact, the real sig
nificance of the document Is that 1t
makes official admissions of these
conditions.
Gen. Wood, in his testimony before
the house military committee today,
furnished some of the most interesting
information ever given before that
body. He discussed the whole subject
of national defense, told where the
weak points lay, and laid particular
emphasis on the possibility of attack
from the Orient. He did not give vent
to any alarmist views as to danger of
any immediate invasions, but talked
confidentially of the need of changes
as prudent and valuable, to guard
against trouble from Japan or China.
Representative MacLachlan, the au-
thor Of the resolution which brought
the official exposition of the weakness
of the military defense, said:
"a foreign country could land 300
900 troops on the Pacific coast in thirty
days, and the only intimation of trou-
BILE would be the blowing up of the
mountain passes, thus preventing any
communication with the east. In the
three states west of the Rocky noun
tains-California, Oregon and Wash
ington-we have 5000 regular troops
and 5000 state militiamen. The best
military authorities say that it would
take years to dislodge foreign troops
if they ever got a foothold under these
conditions, and that it would cost the
United States a billion of dollars"
The bill introduced by Representa-
tive Hobson provides for a national
council for defense and is the result Of
his conference with President Taft,
Secretary Dickinson and other officials.
The war departments precaution to
protect the report led to a serious mix
up in the house. The report was mark
ed confidential" but that precaution
was indicated only on part of the
document. In the routine handling Of the
report it was passed along with other
executive documents to the clerks Of
flee, where such matters are open to
public inspection, but almost instantly
it's confidential nature was discovered
and it was withdrawn to the privacy
Of the speakers office.
After looking into the precedents,
the speaker concluded that there was
no warrant for the reception of the re-
port as a confidential communication.
There he returned it to Secretary
Dickinson with a polite letter calling
attention to the rules of the house,
which require all originally executed
communications to be printed.