The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1916-02-03

their service in the economic fields oil
| the country and only last of all, oil
their serviceability 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. You can
not create such a system rapidly. 1t
has got to be built up; and | hope
it will be built up by slow and effec-
tive stages. And there is something
to be done in the meantime. We must
see to it that a sufficient body of citi-
zens is given the kind of training
call into the field in case Of neces-
sity.
1T is discreditable to this country,
for this is a country full of intelli-
gent men, that we should have exhib-
tied to the world the example we
have sometimes exhibited to it of
stupidity and brutal waste of force.
Think of asking men who can be
easily drawn, to come into the field,
crude, ignorant, inexperienced and
merely furnished the stuff for camp
fever and the bullets of the enemy.
Experience in Spanish War
"The sanitary experience of our
army in the Spanish war was merely
an Indictment of Americas indiffer-
ence to the manifest lessons of ex-
perience in the matter of ordinary
preparations. We have got the men
to waste, but God forbid that we
should waste them. Men who go as
~F +, n hn,
or into the field afford a very hand
some 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.
Il am not forgetting our national
guard.
LAS governor of New Jersey, was
brought into association with and
learned to admire the men, to respect
the officers, and to believe in the ma
tional guard. And l believe that the
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 two score states. And l.,
for my part, am afraid, though some
gentlemen differ with me, and there
made a direct resource as national
reserve under national authority.
Body of Trained Men
what we need is a body of men
trained in association with units OF
the army, a body of men organized un-
der the immediate direction of the
national authorities, body of men
subject to the immediate call 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 with equipment and
training, but not drawn from the
peaceful pursuits which have made
America great and must keep her
great.
Il am not a partisan of any one
plan. l have had too much expert
ence to think that it is right to say
that the plan which proposed is the
only plan that will work, because l
have a shrewd suspicion that there
may be other plans which will work.
But what I am for, and what every
American ought to insist upon, is a
body of at least a half million train
ed citizens who will serve under
conditions of danger as an immedi-
ate available national reserve.
Says Nothing About Navy Increase
Il am not saying anything about
the navy, because don't want to go
to sea. l want to stick to the one
theme tonight, because for some rea-
son there is not the same controversy
aoout the navy that there is about
the army. The navy is obvious and
easily understood. The army appar-
emily is very difficult to comprehend
and understand. We have tradi-
tional prejudice against armies which
makes us stop thinking the minute
we begin talking about them; and we
suppose that all armies are alike, and
that there can not be an American
system in this instance, but that it
must be the European system, and
that is what I, for one, am trying to
divest my own mind of. The navy
is so obvious an instrument of nation
al defense that l believe with differ
ences of opinion about the details, it
is not going to be difficult to carry
out a proper and reasonable program
for the increase of the navy.
but that is another story. My
theme tonight is national defense on
land, where we seem most ignorant
of it and most negligent about it. I
do not want to leave upon your minds
the impression that have any anxi-
ETY. as to the outcome, for have not
the slightest.
There is only one way that parties
and individuals will win the conf
dence of this nation, and that is to do
the things that ought to be done. No.
body is going to be deceived. Speech
es are not going to win elections. The
facts are going to speak for them
selves, and speak louder than any
body who controverts them.
A Year of Accounting
"No political party, no group OF
men can ever disappoint America.
This is a year of political accounting
and the Americans in politics are
rather expert accountants. They
know what the books contain and
they are not going to be deceived.
mo man is going to hide behind