The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-08

fIock of sheep because they were num-
 erOus; neither will foreign country
 possessing a highly trained army and
 navy hesitate to attack the United
 States because this country has mill
 lions of untrained men and billions of unOrganized resources. The pacifists
 and the weddings contend that na-
 ton cannot be sound and strong and ! be moral at the same time; a mat
 ter of fact the strongest are the justesf.
 It is the strong nations, not the
 weak, that decide whether a. question shall be settled by arbitration or by war.
 | Gen. Leonard Wood. commander of the army of the east, and for four years chief of staff of the United States army, addressed the people of Birmingham at the Tutwiler last night, and these ideas | were the burden of his remarks. lnci- ! dentally, General Wood discussed the military training camp to be conducted during the spring and summer at Fort Oglethorpe, Ga, and he urged the CO., operation of the business and professional men of the Birmingham district, as well as the citizens generally, in this camp. | E. | Chamber og Commerce. presided at the
 meeting, and in addition to General | Wood two members of his staff, Captain i kilborne and Capt. Gordon Johnston, | spoke on the question of preparedness and the Fort Oglethorpe military train 1 ing camp. In spite of the fact that no notice of the coming of General Wood was had by the people of Birmingham until the publication of The Age-Herald | yrn far1o1 pir,,y ,,lT nf a 6- ing citizens of the Birmingham district were present to greet the former rank | ing officer of the American army.
 THE SQUARE DEAL
 The square deal and arbitration are all right" said General Wood but righteousness is not enough in this mat ter of international relations. From the earliest days of the republic our great l est leaders have pleaded with us for preparedness. George Washington, 1 Thomas Jefferson John Adams, all con | servative and wise leaders, unquestion- l ably patriotic, advocated measures to prepare the nation to defend itself. We talk much of our isolation. At the pres
 ent time distance is only one-tenth the
 handicap it was in the days of these | earlier Presidents. If preparedness for | national defense was necessary in their 1 time.
 'If preparedness for national defense was necessary in their time, how much 1 more necessary is it now?
 1 We hear much about the danger of 1 nlll1tarism. No man who knows the l conditions existing in the various coun- 1 tries of the world today which have | large armies will be worried by this all legged danger. No democratic nation in l the world which has a large army suffers
 from mlitarism now. There are coun- | tries which have much larger armies l and many times more trained men thar 1 we need that are not worried over this l alleged danger.
 1 The system advised by our earlier leaders, and the plans which are best suited to tEe needs of America at this time are modelled after Australia and | Switzerland. Neither of these countries is in any danger of being dominated by 1 the military class. We hear much about hood suffrage should carry with it the | duty of manhood service. The person | who votes should be willing to come to 1 the defense of his country
 VOLUNTEER SYSTEM
 "The volunteer system is the most
 dangerous thing possible for a nation 1 We all admire the patriotism which inn | pels men to volunteer for service in time | of stress, but the practical lessons of ] the nations of the world have shown l that it is dangerous and sometimes dis l astrous to wait for volunteers until wal l begins. In the civil war, the south was | more effective in the matter of volun-
 teers than the north, yet, despite this
 fact, the south was enforcing compul- sorry service in 1862. The situation in the north was even more disastrous. We
 all know that if either side in the civil
 war had possessed a small army of fully
 trained men, the other side would have l been impotent before its advance.
 'The patriotic zeal of our historians and those who have written the school books which we as children studied. have 1 made us overconfident. As a matter ol 1 fact we have never had a war with a first class country which was free at | the time of the struggle to devote her at- l tention to Lighting us. In the revolu- | tonary war, France was our salvation | The correspondence of General Washing | tor shows that a few trained British l troops were able to overrun large part Of the country, overcoming overwhelming odds on our side. In the war of 1872 l England was engaged in a terrific strug. gle with Napoleon and thus were we enabled to gain victory. Our most
 credtable record was made in the Mexi- ican war. During the Civil war the un- preparedness of both sides added to the length of the struggle.
 | GOLD MINES USELESS
 "Our gild mines in Alaska might hold billions of dollars of wealth, but it would | be useless in case of a financial crisis
 in Wall street. In the same way, Amer ica might have millions of men and bill lions of dollars worth of undeveloped re- sources, but they would all be practically
 useless in case we should have sudden need for them.
 We are in need of a large and highly efficient navy and an army capable of 1 defending our country and it's posses sions This would include garrisons for 1 the Philippines, the Hawaiian Islands, Panama canal, Alaska and Porto Rico, at least 60,0O0. In addition there should
 be a home army and an expeditionary