The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1913-12-16

1911 ~ SlAc uD All |
attempts at maintaining armed land
AorceS! 10 we wish to take a middle
course ana simply be prepared for |
purely defensive needs, and the emer-
sencies that Arise upon u own con-
tinent? No"
For the Middle Course.
All military men in our country
ask that the middle course be. taken
AS we can safely assume that no sane
citizen wants his country to disarm
entirely. we may %confine, our discus
sion to our purely defensive, and we
might say. continental requirements.
The extent to which we need to go
will be treated Of farther on in this
paper.
10 return Tor a 10 the mat
ter OF cost. ] have stated that
ton for war not only tends to make
wars less frequent but it tends to
make a war less costly when it does
come. l will not burden you with
details. but I will invite your attention
to some salient facts.
Trained troops accomplish more
than unframed troops, consequently a
war fought with trained troops is
shorter than one fought with un-
trained troops. Being shorter, there
is a consequent saving in lives and
current expenses. But beside this,
there is the saving caused by a rela-
lively small pension list in the years
following the war. The saving Of
lives is not due alone to successes on
the battlefields and the shortness of
campaigns. More than this even, it
is u to the prevention of camp dis
eases among trained soldiers. Most
of the casualties of all of our wars
were due to camp diseases that could
4 have been prevented in q Well-disci-
plined army. Even In view of the
relatively limited scientific knowledge
existing at the periods Of these sew
eral wars, countless thousands o.
cases of sickness could have been pre-
vented had a proper discipline beer
required of the hastily raised troops
Before proceeding farther to a con
sideratiOn Of the matter Of preparation
for war, let us pause to take stock
SO to speak, n see how we stand a
the present in the matter o
preparation for var on land.
The present authorized aggregat
strength Of the United States army i
95,S4O officers and men exclusive 0
. Philippine Scouts. OF this total Their
: are. about $4,000 officers men in tn
r insular possessions, Alaska an
: Panama
l As To Intervention in Mexico.
Suppose we consider the matter Q
possible Intervention in Mexico. o
the troops now in the United State
, only Sc, 700 belong to the Mobile army
: which means the infantry, cavalry
: field artillery, and Accompanying
special troops INTENDED for field SCI
vice. If our harbor d%efenses be er
:. tirely stripped Of their artillery pei
: sonnet we could increase this by
= force Of 1900 coast artillery soldier
:. making a total Of only $4,000 mel
This taking of all the artilleryme
from the harbor forts would only
justified only in case we had the a:
uranc that Our shores would not {
, attacked by a foreign foe while TT
= forts are unnamed. 1t is needless
state hat such an assurance Won
y be well nigh impossible to obtain.
~ We have at the present time 122,o'
= officers and men in the militia. u
= der the limitation set by the COZ
stitution Of the United States, II
militia as such could not be Sc
across the border into Mexico. Doup
n less a very large proportion or the
1s would volunteer for service in Me
e. leo. However, they would have TO
to completely ~reOrganized, their res
,g ments filed to war strength, ne
,g equipment issued and the organic
a. tjons given additional training. II
We would entail a delay varying WI
n the present state of efficiency OF t
RS several militia regiments. IT would n
ty be less than two months IN any cas
and would average three or 10
I'll
al 1t has been c~OnservatlVely estlmat
e. by many persons who nave STUN
the question hat it would take abo
is 100000 men to operate
i'll in Mexico. and a total of at least 90
900 (half a million) to keep h cou
of try p~acified until a stable soVerhihe
could be formed there.
k How Do We Stand:
nd If hostilitieS with a new power
Al considered. let us see how we stal
SO shall quote from Major Evan
n IohnsOn'S excellent pamphlet on L
re Military Policy of the United state
.rs 1T has been estimated that Z
dc nations in The world can IN TWO wee
he and one other in four Wee Ks Id
he 10000 men. each. on our coasts
est one expedition. Strainlng every
source. counting on no hltch IN ira
M 111nnf 81