Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1915-12-10

But we do believe in a body of free
citizens ready and sufficient to take
care of themselves and of the govern
ments which they have set up to serve
them. In our constitutions themselves
we have commanded that "the right OF
the people to keep and bear arms shall
not be infringed," and our confidence
has been that our safety in times of
danger would lie in the rising of the
nation to take care of itself, as the
farmers rose at Lexington.
But war has neve been a mere mat
ter of men and guns. 1t is a thing of
disciplined might. If our citizens are
ever to fight effectively upon a sudden
summons, they must know how mod
ern fighting is done, and what to do
when the m comes to render
themselves Immediately available and
Immediately effective. And the gov
eminent must be their servant in this
matter, must supply them with the
training they need to take care of
themselves and of it. The military
arm of their government, which they
will not allow to direct them, they may
properly use to serve them and make
their independence secure,-and not
their own independence merely but
the rights also of those with whom
they have made common cause, should
they also be put in jeopardy. They
must be fitted to play the great role
in the world, and particularly in this
hemisphere, for which they are quail
fed by principle and by chastened am
bition to play.
1t is with these ideals in mind that
the plans of the department of war
for more adequate national defense
were conceived which will be laid be-
fore you, and which 1 urge you to
sanction and put into effect as Don
as they can be properly scrutinized
and discussed. They seem to me the
essential first steps, and they seem
to me for the present sufficient.
Larger Army Plan.
They contemplate an increase Of the
standing force of the regular army
from it's present strength of 5,023
officers and 102,9S5 enlisted men of
all services to a strength of 7,136
officers and 134,707 enlisted men,
or 141,843, all told, all services,
rank and file, by the addition
of 1fty-two companies of coast
artillery, fifteen companies of engi-
neers, ten regiments of infantry, four
regiments of field artillery, and four
aero squadrons, besides $50 officers
required for a great variety of extra
service, especially the all important
duty of training the citizen force of
which l shall presently speak, 1872
noncommissioned officers for serv-
ice in drill, recruiting and the
like, and the necessary quota of en-
listed men for the quartermaster
corps, the hospital corps, the ord
nance department, and other similar
auxiliary services. These are the adj
ditions necessary to render the army
adequate for it's present duties, duties
which it has to perform not only upon
our own continental coasts and bor-
ders and at our interior army posts,
but also in the Philippines, in the
Hawaiian islands, at the isthmus, and
in Porto Rico.
By way of making the country ready
to assert some part of its real power
promptly and upon a larger scale,
should occasion arise, the plan also
contemplates supplementing the army
by a force of 100000 disciplined citi-
zens, raised in increments of 1885,
600 a year throughout a period
of three years. This 1t is proposed
to do by a process of enlistment I'M
der which the serviceable men of the
country would be asked to bind them
selves to serve with the colors for pur-
pose of training for short periods
throughout three years, and to come
to the colors at call at any time
throughout an additional "furlough'
period of three years. This force Of
400, 900 men would be provided with
personal accoutrements as fast as
enlisted and their equipment for
the field made ready to be sup
piled at any time. They would be
assembled for training at stated in
tervals at convenient places in asso-
CldIlOn Will oulIdbAO III VI liz
regular army. Their period of annual
training would not necessarily exceed
two months in the year.
1t would depend upon the patriotic
feeling of the younger men of the
country whether they responded to
such a call to service or not. 1t would
depend Upon the patriotic spirit of the
employers of the country whether
they made it possible for the younger
men in their employ to respond under
favorable conditions or not. l, for one,
do not doubt the patriotic devotion
either of our young men or of those
who give them employment-those for
whose benefit and protection they
would in fact enlist. l would look
forward to the success of such an ex-
pertinent with entire confidence.