The Oakes times. [volume] (Oakes, N.D.) 1906-current, 1916-03-16
LOCAL MEN STATE
PREPAREDNESS
Majority favor adequate preparation
of national defence
Military Training for citizens
recommended


(Alvin B. Counsell)
That the business men of Oakes are
not without their opinions on rational
preparedness is shown in a series of
interviews conducted during the last
week. Several different views were
discovered, but this is natural wnen We
consider that it is one or the most
talked Of topics Of today. OF those
interviewed all except two were in
favor of preparedness to some extent.
Preparedness Applied at Home
Mr.. A. P. Guy stated his view OF
preparedness by applying it to an in
.dividual's relation to his neighbor.
He said, "1f your neighbor has a large
flock of chickens and insists on turning
them loose and they destroy your gar
den, what are you going to do? You
couldn't shoot them and still! maintain
peace with him. So the only peace
full and practical course for you to
take is to fence in your garden. This
is the stand the American people
should take in our present situation" )"
Build up strong defense and our
safety would be insured. Mr.. Guy
went on further to say that we do not
need large standing army but milit-
ary training should be taken up in the
schools.
Mayor Slocum's Opinion
1.-THE fellow who fails to make some
preparation for his journey, generally
comes in on the rods" In this quotat-
ion Mr.. Slocum has given his idea on
preparedness very concisely and his
principle is fully expressed. He went
further by saying, "A business firm
must get into the markets early il
they wish 10 buy 1T reasonable price.
They must be prepared to meet the de-
mands.' He applies this same prin-
ciple to national preparedness. We
should be prepared to such IN extent
that we will be able to project our
selves.
Mr. w. J Seifert's Remarks
Mr. ". ]. SeiSert expressed his view
on the subject very plainly in the
following.
1--WE ought to be prepared to GER
tain extent. In my opinion the Unit
ed States should have q navy equal
in size to three-fourths Of the largest
navy in the world. That we ought
to treble the size Of the regular army
we now have, that we be we'll equipped
with war supplies of every description,
that every school and especially our
colleges teach military training.
Our country enjoys unusual advan-
tage on account Of our isolated position
A minimum expense and effort in pro-
portion to what other powers must
pay would place us in a safe position,
it would be cheap insurance and that
means protection,
MIR. ]. A. McKee's Opinion
Mr.. j. A. Mckee is a very ardent
supporter of military training in
schools and is not at all in favor of
increasing our standing army to any
extent.
He says, "A large standing army is
almost bound to run to militarism." {"
A large body of men that are trainec
every day for the purpose of war will
naturally feel like testing ability their
strength. With military training
taken up in schools it would not be
long before the largest share of our
men were trained in the principles of
warfare.
Opinions of c. S. Brown and
H. J. Johnson
Mr.. c. S. Brown has his opinion
changed greatly after spending sever
al weeks on the west coast, and view
ing the massive forts at San Fran
cisco and Los Angeles. He said, ITO