Evening star., 1915-03-28
,n00 WASHINGTON. d. c.. March
$50 NAX o0-The President, as
\V\Y commander-in-c chief OF
" " the army and navy, has

,fdered grand joint maneuver OF th
iecl, the regular army and the or
Sarizcd militia\ ,National Guardl O
divisions ). 6. and $, comprising New
England, New York. Pennsylvania
New Jersey. Delaware, Maryland, VIE
Gnia and West Virginia"
No comment from official circles ac
coinpanied this dispatch when it wa:
printed in the newspapers None wa
uecded Ever since the great coailtioi
had been formed America had facet
NE probability Of war.
In the White House there was
conference of the cabinet, ATTENDED
~ the chief of staff of the United
states Army and the admiral who
Was president of the general board
If the navy.
The regular troops are moving.
reported the chief of staff Every
He laughed grimly. Il take no credit
for it, The trains of the country can
10 il without changing "A schedule. DO
YOU know, gentlemen. that even the
smaller roads often handle an ex-
cursion crowd as big as this whole
Tic Secretary Of War shrugged his
shoulders. DESPITE all the talk OF
recent years. despite all our ofhciai
reports. / doubt II the people realize
II
Make them said the President.
Drive 1t home To them, before war IS
brought to our coasts. He turned to
The two chiefs of staff. Give the news
papers a statement about the ina
nelvers' that will give the public the
cold truth
The fleet," said the admiral to the
newspaper correspondents an hour
later. "is assumed 10 be an enemy
fleet too powerful for opposition l.
will attempt to land at least loo'ooo
ee-htfnr forces somewhere on the AT
1r34- coast 1t is conceded that an
actual enemy planning invasion wouio
no, come with less than that number
r. - conceded also that sufhcientiy
,,t,,-.rguI feet can transport that num-
,rr. and more. safely across the ocean
ru. navy, further, comedies the iahu
rr -,
poke the correspondent OF Boston
,,,.u.tIer We've been told that those
'f1r1s with their fourteen and twelve
fu b.. fifcd steel cannon and their tWeNe-
rr,' mortar batteries. and mines ana l
f.iuzS- are as powerful as any IN the
,rid and can stand off any fleet.
They are not coast defenses. sir.
answered the chief of stan lnes
are harbor defenseS. They can stop
warships from entering our great mar
bors. They cannot prevent an enemy
from landing on the coast out OF tleiI
range. And on the Atlantic coast OF
the United States there are hunoreds
of miles of utterly undefended peacL,
"a easily as If they were trippers land
ing for q picnic. All those miles ol
shore, and all the country behind them,
lie as open to INVASION" he held out
his hand. as this.
sThen what's the use of them
@They furnish a protected harbor
svfthin which our own navy could take
refuge If defeated or scattered, sald
DE admiral They make our pro-
tocted cities absolutely secure against
. purely naval attack no navy ot'l eoutu
readily pass the defenses. and proo-
ably none would venture so close as
eyen to lombard them seriously Ger
ta,nly no fleet could lombard the cities
behind them.
j :;
therefore" he continued, IF an
enemy wishes TO bring war 70 U.s. ne
must land an army Of INVASION ouf
4arbor defenses force HIM 10 90 lha =
but-having forced him TO brths 'he
army, their function ceases, Ihes can
not prevent him from landing II. We
nave 10 do that with our army
And could you stop him. OF is ina
, military secret asked one OF tie
party. He did il tentatively. He had
been a war correspondent with foreign
armies. and he did not expect a repis:
My dear boy" answered tne chlei
of siam. promptly. there probably ish |
"a general stan III the world that doesh
..F.f
rbe last army mule. We've got se,o"o
men in the regular army, ofncers anu
privateSa Of these, you may coun'
out 10. 600. They are non-con oataiits-
cooks hospital staffs. teamsters, ar
morers. blacksmiths and all the other
,das and ends that an army must nave.
mi can't use for fighting. Now, cut
out another y 900 men. Ihose are
cghtirg men. but they're not mere.
,rb.y're in Panama, Hawaii, the Philip-
,.,r.s chin. and AIaska-and we wish
hat we had about three times as many
tL.re. especially in Panama. How mucn
does that leave? Forty eight thousahu .
Very vel, that's what we've got mere
n, home. But you'll please count ous
another l1.ooc. They're in the Coast
Artillery, and have TO man the harpor
dafeuses of which we've been taking.
$ow you've got our mobile arinF-the
actual force that we can put INTO the
feld and move around Thirty-one
thousand men
"A pretty straight tip. agreed the
Washington correspondents when theg
eft the War Department. Ana as j
straight tip they passed II ON TO tneif
resders So the nation read the next
,rornirg how their army was beihg
,,.de ready They read how four com
NAMES OF one infantry regiment were
..a,bered from Fort Lawton in Wash
tr,rton and another four companies
fro,n Fort Missoula in Montana. They
Tead how st!ll four other companions
0f the same regiment were al Madlsoii
.arracks III New YORK ssate
Taeir fifth cavalry regiment, they
earned. was being assembled like a
njcture puzZi. by sending 10 Fort
Myer. virginia. for four troops OF ~
10 Fort sheridan. Illinois, for four more
~ Fort f.eavenworth Kansas. for the
remaining four troops needed TO form
Tber. was field artillery whose com
nonent units were scattered. guns
borses and men, from the Vermont line
=, N. Pio Grande. There were signal
,roops In Alaska. Texas. the Philip
pines and Panama
There was no such mobilization a.
that giant mobilization IN Europe "hei
:, continent mad stood still for days anf
r;ghts while the soldiers moved t'
lheir appointed places. SO Tar scar
rsred was the American army. SO SINAI
,..re its units that only few civil
ls,us here and there could have notice
mat troops were being moved at all.
Iore than one unntlitary citizen
looking over his newspaper that morn
ing. cursed the politics that had main
tanned the absurd. worthless. wastefu
army posts, and cursed himself TO
having paid no heed in the years whei