Arizona republican., 1916-10-25
COLONEL MAKES
 THREE SPEECHES
 IN DENVER STOP
(Continued from rage One)

but especially to evil leadership given our people in high places. Mir Wilson has not only been too proud to fight but also has been too proud to prepare.
 The people of this country should provide for d first Class navy. a navy relative to the other powers what our navy was in February 1909, when the battle fleet returned from the cruise around the world We should have d regular army of a quarter of a million short service men. which would give us a mobile army of 5000 or l50 900 to deal with such eXigences as that which the feebleness of our government has brought about on the Mexican bor- der at this moment. And this should be only the beginning. A freeman must not merely hire others to do his fight ing for him. If he wishes permanently to remain a freeman he must fit him self to fight for his own rights that IS, for his country's rights.
 l honor the national guardsmen who are at the front. They have the true soldierly stuff in them. But the sys- tenn under which they have been sent IS an atrociouS one, and should be changed at once. They have been tricked into going into what they sup posed was war on behalf of the coun- try. When they entered the militia most of them had no idea that they would be conscripted as they have been. Their sense of honor has for bidden them to refuse going. But they should never have been sent for mere police duty; for remember that, thanks to Mir Wilson's tame refusal to pun ish the Mexican bandits. we now have on the border a force of American soldiers from ten to twenty times as numerous as the bandits across the border; and yet this force does nothing. Many men have gone who have been obliged to leave their wives and chil- dren to suffer actual want, and who have permanently injured their pro- fessional or business careers. or defin- itely lost their jobs, because they had to go to the front and spend months away from their business. away from their homes. to make good the damage done by the utter folly of our rulers in Washington
 These rulers in Washington were not really interested m preparedness They were not really interested in the defense of their country. They thought only of their own political fortunes in the immediate future They refused 10 give us expert military legislation They gave us political military legisla- tion; legislation designed to secure votes next November at the cost of the lives of the gallant officers and men Jf the regular army: at the cost of the lives of the civilians men. wom en and children on the border, and in Mexico; and at the cost of the we'll being of thousands of the families of national guardsmen who had them. selves been sent to the Mexican bor- der The legislation of the last session should be repealed and the work ol preparedness entered upon with ser louS purpose. The Hay military law was eV.l from almost every standpoint The system of military pay which il embodied, taken in connection with if, other features. made it an unworth, political eXpedient designed to trans form the militia of the several states into huge political machine. danger 0us to the well-being of the country and of it's citizen soldiery. Most re grettaDly this feature of the .militif pay in it's present unwise form ano the other unwise features of the bill are due in no small degree to the in. fluence of q powerful militia lobby or the president and on congress. Thf. lobby represented not the military in. terests Of the nation, nor the interes or the immense majority of the ranl and file and junior officers of the na
 tional guard, but the interests of ; limited number Of officers. most O them of higher rank Replacing anf repeating this law We should have ; law restoring the militia to it's forme status and establishing a system O obligatory universal military trainin, and service under which we woul, avoid the cruel injustice and hardshil inflicted this summer on so man thousands Of the national guardsmel who have been sent to the border not to make warrior the country. bu
 to help MT Wilson wobbIe betweel feeble peace and feeble war until afte
 election.
 The mobilization of the militia ol
 the border has proved that the feder allzed national guard is a broken rec
 rom the standpoint of national pre
 paredness. and represents no adequat
 national strength either to repel sud
 den attack or to carry on prolonge
 defensive warfare The amiable paci
 fist who was chosen by MT wilson
 with his usual exquisite sense of en
 tire military unfitness. to be secretar
 Of war, prattled with Bryan like cheer
 tulness abOut how ''mobilizations talk
 place easily and need not be upon
 magnificent scale in advance" The
 on June 18th, working on this theor
 or easy and unprepared- for mobiliza
 ton, he commanded the entire natfons
 guard to mobilize immediately. Afte
 ten days of maximum effort jus
 twelve per cent of the men were start
 ed Tor the border. Over thirty DC
 cent of the guard were found to b
 unfit for duty. Many of the men wb
 started for the border had neyef TO
 celved single days training. Man mad never fired d rifle. Most of in
 cavalry regiments had no horses Ha
 the artillery batteries had no guns
 know one division in which. afte
 three months, ten per cent of the me nave not received their blouses an twenty per cent have not receive
 thelr rifles. Some of the regiments O
 the border have learned with wonder lul quickness and are in fine shap some have made no improvement
 few have proved utterly worthless h. cause their officers were so untraine and so unfit for command that inc could not teach and guide and bel over difficulties and care for their me who became little better than a mo me best men in the best regiments q the border have profited much. haN proilted more than men who go to II excellent Plattsburg and similar mil tary training camps have profIte But now, after over four months iirst class national guard officer. wi IS with his regiment on the borde writes me Here we have all fl organized troops in the country on Il border and they only total a vel
 small force, part of which is ineffet l tiVe' l should say that, after thr,
 months we have between 50,0OO ar l9,OOo useful troops in alI.' In oth | words, after three months we did m asseHlple an army fit to resist slr ' ole l.GHfiu.Lr