The Hawaiian gazette., 1916-03-31
RODERIck .. mArHRsoN. MINOR
Preparing TO Prepare

gress who have been urging army measure
adequatcs preparedness are conferred in the Chan
berlain Bill, now being debated in the senat
These hopes are not because the best expert Opt
ion agrees that the senate plan is adequate b.
because il goes further, both in increased strengt
and reorganization, than the Hay Bill, which tn
house has passed. 74:tiS1 &C.. ....r
The Chamberlain Bill is. not as liberal in il
terms towards the pay features for the State mil
tia as the Hay Bill, amendments in committe
having cut out many of the pay provisions, th
amendments limiting pay for the national guar
officers to captains and first and second heuter
ants of companies or similar units, and on thi
account the bill will not be 50 popularity in favo
as the house measure. #@
This bill passed in the house by very larg
majority, but over the protests of Minority Leade
Mann, over. the vehement denunciations of Rer
resentative Gardener and despite the lack Of lap
proval of the administration, shown in lette
from Secretary Baker, read during the debate
Mann and Gardener brought out the fact that tn
Hay Bill does not provide for the defense of Ha
waii, Panama and the Philippines while the read
ing OF letter from Secretary Baker to Represent
alive Gardener, in which the shortcomings of tn
proposed legislation were recognized, proved 81
much OF surprise that for time the bill was il
danger Of defeat. " ~ @
In CONTRAST to the assertion of Chairman Hay
and other sponsors Of the house committees pro
gram that the bill would provide adequate slanc
defense, Secretary Baker delivered the following
opinion of the expected results: ~
The passage of the house army bill would in
crease the regular army by forty thousand nier
in period of three or four years, would make
net increase of the regular army reserve of about
-. A. =
would also increase the national guard and there
fore the number of partially trained men available
in the country, but to what extent am unable
to predict" Secretary Baker further said that the
only immediate effect" Of the legislation would
be increase of the regular army by forty thous-
and men, and even that increase would require
about four years time to be recruited and still
longer time to become effective"
Following the reading of the letter by Congress-
man Gardner, the minority leader, Mr.. Mann took
the floor and said that the advocates of adequate
army legislation welcomed the admission of the
administration that it did not endorse the claims
made for the Hay Bill He said he was encour-
aged to believe that with the administration prac-
tically repudiating the committee report as in
adequate and misleading it would be possible to
secure satisfactory bill in the house or to sub
stitute for the committee bill the Chamberlain
Bill now up in the senate. He further announced
that he proposed to fight the Hay Bill to the last
ditch and to repudiate, in the name of the Repub-
lican minority, the Republican members of the
military committee who joined the Democratic
members IN making the unanimous report on the
measure to the house. The reading of the Baker
letter halted the efforts of Chairman Hay to have
debate on the bill and the preparedness question
limited to ten hours and precipitated night ses-
letter afah
particularly among the Democratic members, who
believed that the bill had the endorsement of the
administration, and it was realized that the bill
had been dealt so severe blow that, even if its
passage was secured by the Democratic ma oritv,
its enactment into law appears out of the question
Chairman Hay, who was directing the admin
istration forces in the fight, is reported to have
been completely dumbfounded and could hardly
believe his ears when he heard the Baker letter,
his claims, read to the house He
left the chamber and sent a. note to
the secretary of war asking for. a copy of the
letter, with which he was furnished at once
Congressman Kahn, of California, senior Re
publican member of the committee, smarting un-
der the attack of the Republican floor leader, in
troduced later in the day an amendment increas-
ing the regular army to two hundred and twenty
thousand men and Congressman Gardner asked
Inat the mouse ADOPT as an amendment the plan
Of the War College, calling for two hundred and
eighty thousand men, differing only from the SEN
lte proposal in that where the senate measure calls
ior mobile army units at two-thifds war strength
m peace times, his amendment would call for war
strength at all times Both amendments went
Town to defeat when Chairman Hay succeeded in
whipping the Democratic majority into line but
will reaPpear when the Chamberlain Bill reaches
he house.