Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1916-01-28

And the ideal which have in mind is
this. gentlemen:
I've ought to have in this country
great system Of industrial and vocational
! education under federal guidance and
| with federal aid. in which very large
percentage Of the youth Of this country
! will be given training in the skillful use
and application of the principles OF
science in maneuver and business. And
1t will be perfectly feasible and highly
desirable to add to that and combine with
| it such training in the mechanism and
use and care of arm. in the sanitation OF
camp, in the simpler forms of maneuver
| and organization as will make those same
| men industrially efficient and individually
serviceable for national defence.
."The point about such system will
be that its 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
and their daily work, Of their service
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 over night. 1t
has got to be built up and 1 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 it that a sufficient body of citizens
is given the kind of training which
will make them efficient for a call
into the field in case of necessity.
1T is discreditable 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
ing men who can be easily drawn to
come into the field, crude, ignorant,
inexperienced and merely furnish the
stuff for camp fever and the bullets
of the enemy.
Spanish War Experience
"The sanitary experience of our
army in the Spanish war was merely
an item Of Americas Indifference to
the manifest lessons of experience in
the matter Of ordinary preparation.
Men who go as efficient instruments
of national honor into the field afford
a very handsome spectacle indeed, but
men who go in crude and ignorant
boys only indict those in authority for
stupidity and neglect. And so it seems
to me that it is our manifest duty to
have a proper citizen reserve.
As to National Guard
Il am not forgetting our national
guard. have had the privilege Of being
governor Of one Of our great states
state which furnishes this city with
a great deal of its intelligence.
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 National
Guard of the United States. 1 learned
to admire the men to respect the Off
GERS and to believe in the National
Guard. And ! believe that that great
arm of our national defense should be
built up and encouraged to the utmost.
But you know that under the Constitu-
ton Of the United Safes it is under the
direction Of more than two score states
and that it is not permitted the ma
tional government directly to direct its
development and organization and that
only upon occasion Of actual invasion
has the President of the United States
the right to ask those men to leave
their respective staes. I, for my part
am afraid, though some gentlemen may
differ with me, that there is no way
In which that force can be made a di-
rect resource as a national reserve I'M
der national authority.
What We need is body of men train
ed in association with units of the army.
a body of men organized under the i'm
mediate direction of the national authori-
ties. body of men subject to the imme
date call to arms of the national au-
thority, 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
nave made America great and must keen
her great.
May Be Other Plans
1 am not a partisan of any one plan.
have had too much experience to think
that 1t 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 I am for, and what ey-
cry American ought to insist upon. is a
body of at least half million trained
citizens who will serve under conditions
ofvdanger as an immediate available ma
tional reserve
Navy Ignored
Il am not saying anything about the
navy, because I don't want to go to SCI.
want to stick to tie 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 understo d.
me army apparently s very difficult to
comprehend and understand. We have
traditional prejudice against armies
which makes US stop thinking the min
ute we begin talking about them; and
we suppose that all armies are alike and
That there cannot be an American sys-
tenn In this instance, but that it must
be the European system and ha is what
l, Tor one. am trying to diyest my own
mind of.
There is only one way that par