New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-07-25
For the National Defence.

spoke only as a good citizen when at Fish
kill camp the other day he attacked the
decisions the inertia, the stupor at Wash
ington and in the public mind which have
left the country unprepared to enforce
lust demands which it is compelled to
make in international crises to protect its
citizens who travel on the high seas or
even to defend its own territory.
The Mayor did not need any great ex-
pert knowledge to justify his assertion
that this nation would be incapable OF
defending its heritage if attacked to-day
by any first class power" for, as he justly
said, that fact is incontrovertible and is
admitted by all those who know our actual
condition and have the courage to speak
the truth upon this question" The truth
is there if anv or. cares to look for it and
face it. But the saddest aspect Of the
situation has been the unwilingness OF
the public and Of legislators and admins
traitors to surrender two empty but highly
popular American superstitions-the one
that war can be made impossible by de-
vices like arbitration, and the other that
our geographical isolation protects US to
such an extent that we can afford to dis
pense with a real army and to maintain
only a moderately developed navy.
Since August /, 1914, it has been clear
that international agreements and the ma
chinery of arbitration cannot protect any
nation unable to protect itself. Belgiums
fate settled that. Moreover, the vast scope
and scientific efficiency of modern war
have practically annihilated distance and
stripped US of our fancied immunity
through isolation. If armies can be car
rjed from Australasia, New Zealand and
Canada to the Dardanelles, they can east
" be transported from Europe to the
United States. That is now only matter
of capable staff organization.
Nevertheless, since August l, 1914, we
have stood pat on our pitiful condition OF
military unpreparedness. At its last ses-
sion Congress authorized increases in the
naval establishment which merely carried
out an existing programme and which
even fell short of the modest recommends
tons Of the General Board of the Navy.
Nothing whatever was done to reorganize
and strengthen the army, in spite of the
incisive report of Secretary Garrison ex-
posing its manifold and glaring deficien-
ces.
The country is fortunate in having at
the head of the War Department man
who has rid himself of the misinforma-
ton, the cant and the cheap phrases which
have so long befogged the public. He sees
that our army is a shell, a skeleton, the
mere shadow of what a national army
ought to be. He has ceased to think Of
our military situation in terms of the long
distant frontiersman's era. He knows
that if we have a serious occasion to use
the army it will be short in everything
in officers, men, rifles, artillery, ammuni-
ton, transport and commissary, in all
the subsidiary corps and in aeroplane ser
vice. 1t will have no adequate first line
and no trained reserve of any sort to
draw upon.
Mr.. Garrison has worked earnestly and
intelligently to strengthen the army. But
he has had little support either in Con-
press or from the administration of which
he is a part. How Indifferent the admin
istration as a whole has been to military
needs is shown by the fact that when an
association of citizens undertook to enroll
and train volunteers who might form a
reserve for the army the government took
pains to show that such patriotic move
ment lacked official sanction.
At last, however, we hear from Wash
ington that plans for diminishing our mil
itary unpreparedness are to receive atten-
ton from the President. The task which
should have been accomplished last fall is
going to be approached next fall. 1t is
even limited that the extra session Of Con-
gress which The Tribune has urged -or
purposes of preparation may soon be
called.
The sooner it is called the better. No
nation can afford to exhibit its pitiable
military weakness to the world at a time
when it is particularly exposed to friction
with foreign nations and is trying to
maintain rights which are challenged by
both the belligerent combinations in Eu
rope. To preserve our own self-respect
as we'll as to enforce respect on others we
must develop our military resources. We
con do much more for our own rights and