Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-08-19
NATIONAL DEFENSE PROBLEMS
BY Frederic J. Haskin
I.-Reserve Officers

TINE nation is to-day facing a
problem of such gravity as it
- has been called upon to con-
front but once or twice in all its his
tory 1t must decide whether or not
it will prepare for the coming of
possible powerful foe.
The problem is one of particular
difficulty because the United States is
inherently nonmilitary-has through
out its history stuck to the principle of
maintaining almost no army and the
smallest navy that would seem in any
way to serve the obvious needs. Its
people are opposed to the idea of mill
| tarism but desirous of that sense of
security which comes with con-
seriousness of their ability to give an
account of themselves in time of need.
The fascination with which they
have watched the progress of the war
in Europe has had in it the element of
personal interest, for the American
has instinctively asked what his own
government would be able to do If 1t
were called upon to meet such foes as
have here been flung back and forth,
one way and another.
When he has read of force of
million and a half trained men, fully
equipped. setting out for the accom-
plishment of a military purpose, he
has thought of the 10000 mobile
troops that the United States has in
readiness were it the object of such an
attack. When he has read of fleets of
submarines running into the hundreds
he has called to mind that flotilla of
a dozen underwater craft that might
be concentrated for the defense of the
Atlantic seaboard were a fleet of the
enemy to set out across the ocean.
He had considered death grapples be-
tween great, civilized, humane, modern
nations, a thing that would never hap
pen-has argued that the terror of it,
the cost of it, the folly of 1t, made
it unthinkable.
Parting of the Ways
| But such a war has come and other
nations as civilized as the United
State, as strongly opposed to war. as
apparently secure from 1t, have been
plunged into 1t. So Uncle Sam has
come to the place where he must de-
termine whether or not to trust to his
ability to remain forever at peace.
Must he or must he not prepare for
the coming of a possible foe of the
future? May he wager the chance of
even ceasing to exist against the privi-
/ lege of remaining democratic and un-
military?
That is the problem which will this
| Fall face the administration of Presi-
dent Wilson, the Congress of the Unit
ed States, and the American people.
Already the Secretary of War and the
Secretary of the Navy have been call
ed upon to submit expert opinion as
to the needs of those services. These
are in the course of being prepared.
Upon these reports, supplemented by
his own opinions and those of his civil
ian advisers, the President will sub
NIT recommendation to Congress.
The session of that body which will
41,1 ,tr1er fV1fE T1d STNri n o.
and probably last late into the Fall,
will be largely given over to the dis
cussion of military preparedness and
at it's close the nation Will be COM
mitted to policy.
Reports of Experts
The reports that are made to the
President by the military experts will
be based to a very large extent upon
the lessons that are to be learned from
the European war. Those reports will
recommend the laying down of pro-
gram of military preparedness. There
will be certain items which will be
cited as desirable but not indispensa-
BILE. But there will be no dissenting
voices among the experts as to the inn
operative need of a greatly enlarged
corps of trained officers.
If, for instance, the army is not en-
ilarged or is enlarged but slightly, II
lit Is decided that the United States
will stick to its present program and
depend upon q volunteer army when
an emergency arises, the need will
be even stronger for this corps of OFF,
GERS than otherwise.
Need OF Officers
It is held that the United States
finding itself thrust into a war, would
need every officer 1t now has to handle
the regular army in its efforts toward
resistance If 1t called for a million
volunteers and secured them, it would
be without trained officers to convert
them from raw recruits into efficient
fighting machines. It is granted that
an intelligent recruit may be made a
pretty good soldier with six months OF
the right sort of training. But to gel
that training he must have efficient
handling. There must be competent
highly trained officers to effect the
Transformation. To handle million
recruits there must be a large num-
Der of officers. The experts say that
IL we were plunged into a war with a
first-class power it would require the
services of 10000 officers to make us
an adequate army.
England's Difficulty
England, 1t is claimed, has encoun-
tered its chief difficulty in making an
army because of an insufficient force
Of trained officers. Trouble with en-
listments and in the production of
munitions has been easier to over
come. Russia. it is also stated by the
lexperts, has found her great handicap
when the day of mighty battles came
in the fact that her troops, admirable