The Carlisle independent., 1915-12-09

tage because of the economic readjust- ments which the world must inevi- tably witness within the next genera ton, when peace shall have at last re- sumed it's healthful tasks. In the per formanee of these tasks l believe the Americas to be destined to play their parts together. I am interested to fix your attention on this prospect now because unless you take it within your view and permit the full significance Of it to command your thought I can not find the right light in which to set forth the particular matter that lies at the very front of my whole thought as l address you today. I mean na- tiona1 defense
 No one who really comprehends the spirit of the great people for whom we are appointed to speak can fail to perceive that their passion is for peace, their genius best displayed in the practice of the arts of peace. Great democracies are not belligerent They do not seek or desire war. Their thought is of individual liberty and of the free labor that supports life and the uncensored thought that quickens it. Conquest and dominion are not in our reckoning, or agreeable to our l principles. But just because we de- mand unmolested development and the undisturbed government of our own lives upon our own principles of right and liberty, we resent, from whatever quarter it may come, the az i gression we ourselves will not prac- tice. We insist upon security in prose cutting our self-chosen lines of nation al development. We do more than that. We demand it also for others.
 Question of Preparedness.
 Out of such thoughts grow all our l policies. We regard war merely as a means of asserting the rights of peo- pie against aggression. And we are as fercely jealous Of coercive or die tatorial power within our own nation as Of aggression from without We will not maintain a standing army ex- cept for uses whiel are as necessary l in times of peace as in times of war; and we shall always see to it that our military peace establishment is no | larger than is actually and continu- ously needed for the uses of days in
 which no enemies move against us But we do believe in a body of free i citizens ready and sufficient to take care of themselves and of the govern ments which they have set up to serve them.
 But war has never been mere mat l ter of men and guns. It is a thing of disciplined might. If our citizens are ever to fight effectively upon sudden summons, they must know how mod ern fighting is do . and what to do when the summons comes to render themselves immediately available and immediately effective. And the gov ernment must be their servant in this matter. must supply them with the training they need to take care Of themselves and of 1t.
 It is with these ideals in mind that the plans of the department of war for more adequate national defense were conceived which will be laid be- fore you, and which I urge you to sanction and put into effect as soon as they can be properly scrutinized and discussed. They seem to me the essential first steps, and they seem to me for the present sufficient.
 Larger Army Plan.
 They contemplate an increase of the standing force of the regular army from it's present strength of 5,023 officers and 102,9S5 enlisted men of all services to a strength of 7,136 officers and 134,707 enlisted men, or 141,s43, all told, all services, rank and file, by the addition
 artillery, fifteen companies Of engi- neers, ten regiments of infantry. four regiments of field artillery, and four aero squadrons, besides 750 officers required for great variety of extra
 service, especially the all important duty of training the citizen force of
 which I shall presently speak. 792 noncommissioned officers for serV- l ice in drill, recruiting and the l like, and the necessary quota of en- l listed men for the quartermaster i corps, the hospital corps, the ord nance department, and other similar 1 auxiliary services. These are the ad- i ditions necessary to render the army ] adequate for it's present duties, duties
 which it has to perform not only upon l our own continental coasts and bor- 1 ders and at our interior army posts, 1 but also in the Philippines. in the Hawaiian islands, at the isthmus, and i in Porto Rico.
 By way of making the country ready l to assert some part of it's real power promptly and upon larger scale, l should occasion arise, the plan also
 contemplates supplementing the army i by force of 100000 disciplined citi-
 zens, raised in increments of 133,-
 900 year throughout a period
 of three years. This it is proposed
 to do by 9 process of enlistment un-
 der which the serviceable men of the country would be asked to bind them
 selves to serve with the colors for pur- 1 pose of training for short periods 1 fbrouphOut tbFoa voars and fO come