Norwich bulletin., 1916-03-11
WHAT PREPAREDNESS MEANS TOU. s.
Gen. w. A Aiken Gives Views Vital Subject in Address Before Park Church Men-Endorses Col Roosevelt's Plan for National Defense

eut rank aa no higher than fourth among the navies of the world. Roose- welt calls tt fifth.
 Under the exhilarattng influence ot St. Louis audiences, however. the president throws all that to the winds and proclaims to an astonished world | his desire for navy incomparably the largest in the world.
 Upon the second line of defence, the army, the president reduces greatly the estimates of the chief of stan and the War College as to the force | or the reserves, but agrees with the | recommendation of his secretary of I war es to the proper nature of those | reserves so far as the rnising of @ | volunteer force outside the Nat1onal | Guard-or militia-of the several | states is concerned and lends the full | force of official reoommendat1on to | the scheme for the creation of a so- | called, Continental Army.
 Through the interference of other influences, the president has since changed his position. if not his mind. | and has thereby lost the services of his war secretary, perhaps the strong est man in his cabinet His present position not only opposes the recom- mendations Of Secretary Garrison, but absolutely oversets all the recommen- | dations of the general stah and the War College.
 | "A
 rived at in congress, but the danger | is that 1t will be a clumsy and com
 paratively ineffective substitute for
 symmetrical plans long and painfully
 worked out by our professional ex- perts.
 | When the compromise referred to
 is reached and the composition of the
 forces determined then, and not till
 then, do we strike the real crux of
 the situation And this 1t is-to get
 men.
 | Success at this point win depend | somewhat on the situation in Europe.
 in Mexico and in the United States
 Should our relations with the outer | world be about as now, there is, to my mind. extreme doubt of success arising from the excess of demand
 over supply of labor. from vivid rec
 ollection of the great difficulty in se-
 curing volunteers during long inter
 vals of our great Civil war. even with
 the aid of town, city and state boun-
 ties, from the reluctance of employ
 CTS of labor to release their employees
 long enough for the necessary train
 ing-and from the hostility of organ
 ized labor"
 hope the event win show my views
 In this matter too pessinistic: but
 when responsible officers of the Ma
 tional Guard tell me. as they have. of their trying experiences in contending
 against these obstacles, and by the
 statement once made to me by an in dustrial manager in our own city. that
 if a man in his employ took time to
 pass a brief week in camp at Mantle
 he would discharge him and when notice now and again, as you may
 have done, newspaper accounts of the
 prohibition by labor examinations, of
 membership fin the National Guard.
 cannot resist these doubts.
 There are forty-nine army posts scattered over the country, most Of them created in the days of pioneer ' a--. T--
 dians. Most of these are worse than 7 useless, though still supported by pub ] lie funds and manned by a sufficient i, force to properly care for the out ! ! works, defences, buildings, etc. We ! have eleven navy yards "at home" "
 The British navy-far the largest in . the world-has less than half a dozen 5 corresponding estnblishments-calle [ doclIyards. "at home"-that is, in the 3 British Isles.
 2 Four of our navy yards were estab- 3 lished in 1900. one in 1901. one in 7 1928, ono in 1s49, one in 1854, one ir 1888, one in 1891 and one In 1901 Eight of them more than half a cen r tury old and five more than a century }, old and all selected with reference tC @ tho wants of those days. = Besides these, we have two so-call. = cd Naval Stations" at Port Royal, s e C.. and Key West. Fla.
 We have also three nnvy yards anC f four naval stations on our insula1 a possessions, besides sixteen training, 't "coaling" md "miscellaneous" stations @ each absorbing large appropriations @ With nll this-and nothwithstandlni # the very much larger expense, for pa D of employees. enlisted men and ofn 70 cers than in any army or navy of tn I- world. and not forgetting the inevita Il ble sequence of pensions after an, n tween q dead halt and a forwar l. move. in nRterial preparedness agains tt wRr-and fo. peace?
 ,r Though am not a political followe m of Colonel Roosevelt. believe his pln lr which ono who reads the reports c L. the army and navy boards betwee L. the lines can sec is theirs by prefer s ence-if most expensive at the star a- would prove in the end by far tn -S most economical of life and money "a equally tho most efficient for ever m day in the year. and in the highes ar sense, tho most truly Democratic. r- The present situation holds in sus ,- pense, very grave possibilities, fo 1t which, it seems to me, We must b t prepared, or abandon our loud pre- Iv tensions to be at the same time tn ,o protector of the Western HemispheI Io and n world power,
 l5 But these feverish and absorbin "a plans for national preparedness shoul soa not crowd from our earnest aspIrs o tions those grander efforts for inter national peace, for years the dream -s - the best men of both hemispheres; III men like Elihu Root, Nicholas Murra h- Butler. William H. Taft and Andre
 Carnegie,
 no In these days when the solemn trea s ties of Hague World conventions. bt ,n come in a moment mere scraps of pc 'e; per- the nearer alarm displaces n 1a grander hope.
 no I firmly believe that through tn V world cataclyRm is coming, by way Ts which we as yet see not, but whic no clearly sees. an era nearer than ev, to before to Peace on earth and goo ut will ta men,
 cs Al the close of General Afken's ta ,e, the members were invited to the diI
 Ing room where 6 buffet lunch WI a served.
 oa
 l.
 an W1ll Speak ln New London.