Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-11-11
PRESIDENT TELLS
PLAN OF DEFENSE
Summarizes His Program in a
Speech Before the Man.
haitian Club.
NATION MUST BE PREPARED
Increase Of Army, Training Of Citizen
y and More Rapid Building Up of
Navy-Rebuke for Hyphen-
ated Americans.

navy BDE ny PitSH-
ated Americans.
New York, Nov. 5.-Setting forth
his ideas of what should be done in
the way Of national military prepared
ness, President Wilson last night in all
address at the fftieth anniversary din
ner Of the Manhattan club asked for
support for the Administrations pro
gram.
Our ambition, said Mr. Wilson, is
not only to be free and prosperous
ourselves, but also to be the friend
and thoughtful partisan Of those who
are free or who desire freedom the
world over. We shall, he declared he
believed, never again take another
foot Of territory by conquest, or seek
to make an Independent people sub
ject to our dominion. Because Of the
great European conflict, said the pres
ident, from one end Of our own dear
country to the other men are asking
one another what our own force Is,
how far we are prepared to maintain
ourselves against any interference
with our action or development.
Though the mission of America in
the world is essentially a mission Of
peace and good will among men, de-
Clared Mr.. Wilson, we feel justified in
preparing ourselves to vindicate our
right to Independent and unmolested
action by making the force that is in
US ready for assertion.
Plans for the Army.
"And we know" continued the pres
ident, that we can do this in a way
that will be itself an illustration of the
American spirit. In accordance with
our American traditions we want and
shall work for only an army adequate
to the constant and legitimate uses of
times Of international peace. But we
do want to feel that there is a great
body Of citizens who have received at
least the most rudimentary and neCes-
saTy forms of military training; that
they will be ready to form themselves
into a fighting force at the call of the
nation; and that the nation has the
munitions and supplies with which to
equip them witbout delay should it be
necessary to call them into action.
We wish to supply them with the
training they need. and we think we
can do so without calling them at any
time too long away from their civilian
pursuits.
1T is with this idea, with this con-
Ception in mind that the plans have
been made which it will be my privi-
1ege to lay before the congress at its
next session. That plan calls for only
such an increase in the regular army
of the United States as experience has
proved to be required for the perform
anCe of the necessary duties of the
army in the Philippines, in Hawaii, in
Porto Rico, upon the borders of the
United States, at the coast fOrtifica-
tons, and at the military posts of the
interior For the rest, it calls for the
training within the next three years
Of a force of 100000 citizen soldiers to
be raised in annual cOntingents of 1884,
600, who would be asked to enlist for
three years with the colors and three
years on fCrlough. but who during
their three years of enlistment with
the colors would not be organized as
a standing force but would be expect
ed merely to undergo intensive train
ing for very brief period of each
year. Their training would take place
in immediate association with the or
ganized units of the regular army. It
would have no touch of the amateur
about it, neither would it-exact of the
volunteers more than they could give
in any one year from their civilian
pursuits.
And none of this would be done in
such a way as in the slightest degree
to supersede or subordinate our pres
ent serviceable and efficient National
Guard. On the contrary, the National
Guard itself would be used as a part
of the fundamentally by which train
ing would be given the citizens who
enlisted under the new conditions, and
| should hope and expect that the leg
islation by which al this would be ac-
Complished would put the National
Guard itself upon q better and more
permanent footing than it has ever
been before.
For Development of the Navy.
at has been American policy time
out of mind to look to the navy as
the first and chief line of defense.
The navy of the United States is al
ready a very great and efficient force.
Not rapidly, but slowly. with careful
attention, our naval force has been
developed until the navy of the United
States stands recognized as one of the
most efficient and notable of the mod