The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-28


 creation of such an instrument is an ! insurance of peace. I believe that it involves the danger of all the tempta- tions that ski!lful persons have to use the things that they know how to use. Hut we don't have to do that. Amer lea Is always going to use her army in two ways. She is going to use 1t for the purpose of peace, and she is go- | Ing to use 1t as nucleus for eXpan- sion into those things which she does believe in. namely, the preparation of her citizens to take care of them selves
 There are two sides to the question | of preparedness. There is not merely the military side, there is the indus trial side. And the ideal which have in mind is this, gentlemen; We ought to have in this country a great sys tenn of industrial and vocational edu- cation, under federal guidance and with federal aid in which a very large | percentage of the youth of this coun- try will be given training in the skill full use and application of the prin- ciples of science in maneuver and busi- ness. And it will be perfectly feasible and highly desirable to add to that. and combine with it, such a training in the mechanism and use and care of arms, in the sanitation of the camp, in the simpler forms of maneuver and organization, as will make these same men industrially efficient and individ- ually serviceable for national defense.
 FORCE IN BACKGROUND The point about such a system will be that it's emphasis will lie on the industrial and civil side of life; and that, like all the rest of America, the use of force will only be in the back ground and as the last resort. So that men will think first of their families ar hniY- Iai1 nrly nf hni in the economic fields of the country and only last of all of their service ability to the nation as soldiers and men at arms. That is the ideal of America
 "But, gentlemen, you cannot create such a system overnight You cannot create such a system rapidly. It has got to be built up; and I hope it will be built up by slow and effective stages. And there is something to be done in the meantime We must see to 1t that a sufficient body of citizens is given the kind of training which will make them efficient for call into the field in case of necessity
 "It is discredtab1e to this country for this is a country full of intelligent men, that we should have exhibited to the world the example we have some times exhibited to it of stupidity and brutal waste of force. Think of ask
 
 come into the field, crude, ignorant, in- experienced, and merely furnish the stuff for camp fever and the bullets of the enemy.
 "The sanitary experience of our army in the Spanish war was merely an ln- dictment of Americas indifference to the manifest lessons of experience in the matter of ordinary preparation. We have got the men'to waste, but God forbid that we should waste them. Men who go as efficient instruments of na- tional honor into the field afford very handsome spectacle indeed, but men who go in, crude and ignorant boys, only indict those in authority TOT stupidity and neglect. And so it seems to me that it is our manifest duty to have proper citizen reserve.
 THE NATIONAL GUARD
 q am not forgetting our National Guard l had the privilege of being governor of one of our great states a state winch furnishes this city with a great deal of it's intelligence. Some Jerseymen on either side here enjoy that very much
 And as governor of New Jersey 1 was brought into association with what I am glad to believe was one of the most efficient portions of the Ma tional Guard of the United States. l learned to admire the men, to respect the officers, and to believe in the Ma tional Guard And l believe that that great arm of our national defense should be built up and encouraged to the utmost. But you know that under the constitution of the United States it is under the direction of more than twoscore states and that it is not per mitted to the national government di- rectly to direct its development and organization And that only upon occa-
 Io, ho Dpnc dent of the United States the right to ask those men to leave their respect i've states l. for my part, am afraid, though some gentlemen differ With me, that there is no way in which that force can be made a direct resource as national reserve under natlonal au- thority.
 NEED OF COUNTRY
 What we need is a body of men trained in association with units of the army, body of men organized under the imme- diate direction of the national authorities, a body of men subject to the immediate calls to arms of the national authority, and yet men not put into the ranks of the regular army; men left to their tasks of civil life; men supplied with equipment and training, but not drawn from the peaceful pursuits which have made Amer ica great and must keep her great
 'I am not a partisan of any one plan l have had too much experience to think that it is right to say that the plan which proposed is the only plan that will work, because I have a shrewd suspicion that there may be other plans which will work. But what l am for and what every Amer ican ought to insist upon, is body of at least a half-million trained citizens who will serve under conditions of danger as an immediately available national reserve.
 "I am not saying anything about the navy, because I don't want to go to sea. want to stick to the one theme to- night because for some reason there is not the same controversy about the navy that there is about the army. The navy is obvious and easily understood. The army apparently is very difficult to com prehend and understand We have tra- ditional prejudice against armies which makes us stop thinking the minute we began talking about them; and we sup pose that all armies are alike, and that there cannot be an American system in this instance but that it must be the European system and that is what l, for one, am trying to divest my own mind of. The navy is so obvious an instrument of national defense that I believe with diff ferences of opinion about the detail, it Is not going to be difficult to carry out proper and reasonable programme for the rcrease of the navy.
 DEFENSE ON LAND