The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-12-18
MOST FORMIDABLE COAST DEFENSE IN
 WORLD THAT 0F US.
War Department Report, However, Shows That For tificatiOns Are Greatly
 Undermanned

|
 l Washington, December 17.-War depart
 ment bureau reports made public tonight disclose the following facts about the i army of the United States and it's coast defenses:
 The system of coast defenses is ''the
 most formidable in the world" but is short 53O officers and 1O,S2S men of the | regular establishment and 271 officers and ! 9S91 men of the National Guard to man all forts and mine defenses Congress has appropriated SITS 50o0,o0O to establish the present system, but at present batteries which cost s41, ,000, ,000 are without trained personnel to man them.
 Batteries of 16-inch, .50-calibre guns are l recommended as the primary armament
 of all major forts in order that enemy
 ships may be kept at great distance. Mo bile howitzer batteries of 16-inch, 17-inch or even larger guns, are urged to supple
 ment the permanent forts, the howitzers to be fired from railroad cars or motor trucks
 The full strength of the army on June 30, last, was 105,993 officers and men, 6S, 2oS of whom were in the United States, 14,S40 of this number being on duty on Or near the Mexican border, Vacancies in the enlisted force were reduced from 9573 in 1914 to 17S6. the year having seen 4S,S13 recruited, of whom nearly 90 per cent were born in the United States. On October 1 the full strength of the militia was S705 officers and 120693 men. 1 just 21, below required enlisted strength of the organization. Inspecting officers estimate it would require from two to F
 months to put the militia in the field in the federal service
 There were 32,313 students enrolled in 9e schools having military courses and
 graduates from these schools since 1905 nu mbered g. 430
 The coast artillery established scores of 59 per cent hits, with 1O-inch guns and 52 per cent hits with 12-inch guns at 50O0-yard rangers, as against 25 per cent and 46 per cent, respectively, in 1913: at 1G,0C0 yards the scores were 3la per cent, with the 10-inch guns and 19 per cent with the 12-inch guns, as against 13 and 14 per cent in 1913.
 The army death rate was 4.40, com- pared with 5.15 the year before. There were only seven cases of typhoid fever out of total mean strength of per sonnel of 9S,649 A new low record was set for tuberculosis at $50, for all troops, the rate in the continental United States being 2.69.
 secured, and these were transactions which shifted the canter of financial grav- ity. so to speak, so that the United States within few weeks passed from a position of serious embarras assment and | lerr<.. do to z e,t,. stantly reinforced since that time. Of course the Anglo-French loan, very diff f1cult piece of financing from all points of view, will be numbered among the chief events associated with international financing, since that is the first foreign loan England has asked for in many years. So also the credits which have been arranged are sure to become tradi- tional But those who are familiar with | the great currents and movements in the | modern world of international financing are persuaded that this stupedous effort of Great Britain to utilize American se- curities so that they may become liquid assets, these same securities representing indebtness of the United States to Great Britain will very likely pass into history
 as the most highly strategic and momen- tous achievement of international financ- ing.
 ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW l A superficial reading of the plan sug-
 gests that it involves no more than the exchange of English securities, the obliga- tions of the government, for American se- curities. In other words, Great Britain will buy or borrow American securities her citizens own and give her own obliga- tions in place of them. But if the war should continue, as Lord Kitchener is reported to believe it will, until August ho 1ho1 Jal1t which the United States owes to Great | Britain, of which the visible and nego- 1 tiable evidence is American securities will be utilized in order to pay the debt | which Great Britain will owe the United | States on account of purchases. This can not be done through the normal courses of international trade. Sixteen years ago, American farmers and to some ex- 1 tent American manufacturers furnished
 through their commodities sold to England i the means whereby perhaps $l $l,000.000.000 ol 1 American securities were used to pay foI ! these commodities. Now, by one of the extraordinary factors created by the war 1 it seems likely that the United States will 1 through delicate and yet very sound | financing accept all of these securities which are now carried in England and or
 1 the continent in payment for the pur-
 1 chases nations across the sea make in the
 | United States. If when the war ends il
 l be found that we have swapped, so tc
 | speak. indebtedness to Great Britain ant
 | to the continent in exchange for theil
 Il indebtedness to us it may then properly
 ] be said that the United States is nc
 l longer a debtor nation. These are some o1
 | the comments that were occasioned in the
 Il financial district by the speech made by
 the chancellor of the exchequer to the
 House of Commons.
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