The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1915-11-13
.CRITICIzElWILSON
DEfENSE''lPROdRAM
DEMONSTRATIONS PLAN FOR
DEFENSE BY VOLUNTEER ARMY
THOUGHT SNOWY BUT WEAK
Chicago Tribune Urges Candid and
Thorough Criticism to Bring Out
Weak Points in Plan

vtCdA l. V1uVS III Il luA
Implying that the Administration
!. defense plan is not the result of un-
j censored and we'll considered delib-
erations of military and naval ex-
perts, and that concessions to polite
al and legal difficulties have been
made too freely, The Chicago Tribune
comments at some length upon it
editorially.
1t says, ''The chief danger confront
i ing the campaign for efficient national
defense, as The Tribune has pointed
out on several occasions, is the pre-
mature and uncertain acceptance of
snowy measures which are insufficient
and which will serve only to renew
our fallacious seIf-confdence
''This danger is strikingly illustrat-
ed in the unthinking and hasty in
dorsement of the presidents program
by numerous prominent citizens who,
however able in their own fields, OBJ
NlOuS1y nave S1FCn III otuOJ ~ SAAS
subject of military efficiency.
What is now of most Importance
in the campaign for real defense is
such candid and thorough criticism
expose it's weaknesses as the expert
sees them, and thorough advertise
ment Of the fact that the program is
not the result of uncensored and well
considered deliberation by experts.
ssThe Tribune is not disposed to
blame the able. and earnest civilian
who is Mr.. Wilson's secretary of war,
but it is confident that the concessions
made to difficulties, political and
legal, expressed in the compromises
of the Wilson program are not wise
or safe.
"The figures marshaled in the war
department plan appear formidable,
but if we can judge of the immediate
future by the present, and of propos-
ed conditions by those existing, these I
figures are illusory
sThe conspicuous factor of the plan
is an army of 100000 volunteers. That
is impressive in promise, but before
sensible men will accept that promise I
they must be shown how these 100000
civilians are to be induced to vol
unteer. The national guard has a pa
per strength of $4,000, with an aver
age drill attendance Of 100000 1t is
with the greatest difficulty and con
stant unselfish effort. on behalf of it's
officers that this organization is main
tanned. BY what magic is another
body of volunteers of $4,000 to be
conjured annually from our reluctant
citizenship?
Let us assume for the sake of argu-
ment that at least during the present :
period of stimulated interest in de- ,
tense an additional $4,000 men are /,
willing to enlist for six years for mil :
itary duty and to undergo short per- :
iods of intensive training for three !
years. This force we infer is what
the president meant when in his ad-
dress at the Manhattan club he spoke
of a great body of citizens who have
received at least the most rudfmentary
and necessary forms of military train s
ing,'' while in the next sentence he /.
naively declared that they will be
ready to form themselves into fight
ing force at the call of the nation :
s. ;r ~ vsoo Of tho ~
heart Of the whole plan. The, men up
IN whom we are asked to rely for ma
tional defense will not be ready to
rorm themselves or be formed into =
lighting force by the slight training
called for by the plan. They will have
he rudimentary training named by p
he president, but the sending Of men Y
With rudimentary training into the 81
ield is murder, not war. II the pres &
dent and his advisers do not know u
his now after fifteen months of war o.
are IN Europe, to say nothing OF the g
epeated lessons of our own unhappy ~
military history, they are cplpably II ~
lot willfully ignorant. TO
1T is time to stop talking nonsense TO
nd to face the truth that men must 10
ndergo long and thorough training
nd discipline to be effective in mod ca
m war, which puts the. greatest OF ed
ndnrable strain upon the, soldier. II he
7e shirk this truth and accept half ha
,easures we are not preparing for pu
efense, we are deceiving ourselves pc
, our own destruction Kitchener fel