The Daytona daily news. [volume] (Daytona, Fla.) 1903-1926, 1916-01-25
FORMER ATTORNEY
GENERAL CONDEMNS
MILITARY METHODS
GEO. w. WicKERsHAM MADE ELo-
ouENT APPEAL AT WASHING
TON LAST NIGHT FOR GREATER
PREPAREDNESS:

FnGFAhG0NESS.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25.-Geo. w.
Wickersham, ex attorney general. |
strongly condemned past and present |
American military methods in an elo-
quent appeal for preparedness be-
fore the National Security congress
here Saturday.
The bounties in land and money /
paid volunteers for enlisting, and the t
pension system which fastens on the /
nation a burden of sI60, 200, 900 a year
fifty years after the close of our last /
great war. form a dark page of our
history, he said.
Yet these are the inevitable product t
of our popular theory land that of the /
English) that military service is not |
duty. Military service is a duty, le- t
gally and morally, Mr.. Wickersham |
showed.
While admitting that universal con- |
scription cannot now be brought I
about, Mr.. Wickersham said this fact /
only throws into deeper relief the pitt |
fulness of our present position and is |
an added argument for the modest adj |
ministration defense program. Dwell |
ing on our present helplessness, he
said:
I'VE know, for example, that our
army today is nearly 5000 below its |
nroSpuf autborizad cfropOtb We l-poxx-
that our navy is short by nearly s.
900 men Of its present authorized
| strength. We know that there is a
serious deficiency in ammunition for
our coast defenses. We know that
we lack for our battle cruisers, scout
cruisers, aeroplanes and armed air
ships, that our submarine fleet is in
critical condition.
| I'VE are told that the coast fortifi-
cations in the United States, firing
at the limit of their capacity, would
expend every bit of ammunition they
possess within As minutes; that at
Panama, one hour and As minutes
would exhaust the last round of am
munition, if the guns were fired at
their maximum rate, and that there
exist no defenses against a land at
tack upon the canal works by a hos
tile force disembarking on the Pa
cific side at a point about so miles
south of Panama and advancing along
the plateau
I'VE undertook is years ago a great
responsibility in the Philippine Is
lands which we must say, nay can
not, run away from, however much
our people would like to. We occupy
a strategical point in the Pacific ocean
in the possession of the Hawaiian
. group of islands. Its maintenance is
essential to our national welfare. Its
loss would mean such destruction OF
national prestige that its effect upon
our national welfare is scarcely con-
ceiyable.
We occupy strategical point in
the worlds commercial routes in the
possession of the Panama canal. Nei
Their Panama nor Hawaii is properly
: and safely garrisoned against possible
! or even probable attack The general
staff of the United States army tells
US, with the authority of the secretary
of war, that a force of about %. 0O(
men is essential TO the protection OF
the Notifications of the Island of Gu
> ba; we have some 5000 men there;
\ that $4,000 men are essential to the
{ protection of the Panama canal. an(
We have about 5000 men there
with a population of 100, O00, 90,
souls in continental United States. ",
today have regular army which mum
= bers only about 10000 officers an,
= men actually under arms, and of thi
not more than one-half are on tn,
= American continent The police force
of Is cities of the United States, Wit
70 total population slightly under Is
100000, aggregate upwards of 31,00
officers and men-a number as large
if not larger, than the actual person
- mel of the regular army employed a
> present on the American continent
'The condition of our coast do
fenses has been sharply put before u
by the report of the chief of tina
service, and We are told that artiller
costing upwards of s41.000.000 is witt
out man to protect it; that the oil
system of relying upon the states 10
voluntary military support, under tn
act of congress, which provides tina
one-half of the coast artillery sha
be furnished by the states, has failed
as it always has failed through on
history, to provide US with anythin
like the stipulated quota of men.
That law should be repealed, an
that other enactment of congressions
FOLLY. approved May 81, 1908, whic