Arizona republican., 1917-03-21
SHORTCOMINGS
Of 0URDEFENSE
ARE SET FORTH

IEepuDHCdn -. r. Leased wire
NEW YORK, March 20.-With a
warning that the United States is un-
prepared for war with any first class
power a committee of the Union
League clcb, headed by Robert Bacon,
presented at a special meeting tonight
a report calling upon the country to
get ready for action Charles f.
Hughes presided.
If We go to war with Germany"
said the report, "our only real protec-
tion will be the ships of the French
and British navies, and our own navy
which is under manned
We have no coast defenses which
could prevent the landing of troops on
our shores. We have no defense which
would prevent the complete and i'm
mediate capture of our coast cities and
ammunition factories in the coast
states of New Jersey and Connecticut,
as well as every one of our navy yards
The facility with which hostile power
could land troops on our shores has
been repeatedly and authoritatively
stated.
Our regular organizations lack
many things which are vitality essen
tial in modern war. We lack machine
guns of all types. We lack grenades
and bombs We are without trench
mortars of the type in use in Europe.
We are without various kinds of field
signal apparatus. We are short Of
modern field wireless. We are with
out any of the modern types of heavy
mobile artillery such as is in general
use in Europe.
we are short of reserve rifles and
all field artillery. We have not a field
gun for volunteers. Our supplies of
small"
In opening the meeting, Mr.. Hughes
said:
There is a principle involved in
the attacks that have been made and
the success of that principle, I do not
think it is too much to say, threatens
the integrity of our country. If that
principle is successfully maintained,
the question is not simply one of COM
mercial rights. l regard these attacks
and the method of their conduct as an
onslaught on liberty and on civiliza-
tion itself. 1t is time that the Amer
lean people understood it. All organ
izations exercising public influence
should record their convictions"
Elihu Rood declared Germany is
making war upon the United States.
Technically. there may not be a
I
it takes two to produce that, but Ger
many is making war upon US and we
are all waiting to see whether we are
to take it lying down. 1t is either
war or it is submission to oppression.
My diagnosis of the situation is
that the president wants to hear
whether the people of the United States
want him to go on and act He has
said so many times. Let US answer
him and tell him that the American
people do not want him to discuss to
plan, or to talk about what is going
4 to be DONE but to act
| Mr.. Root said the multiplying mil
lions of the Orient We're seeking an
outlet for national evolution and that
the only territory left open to them
was that which extended from Terra
! del Fuego to the Caribbean sea, pro-
tected by nothing but the Monroe doc
/ trine.
THAT is what we have to face after
this war is over he asserted, ''and
where is our Monroe doctrine? What
is it worth without force behind it?
And if the Monroe doctrine fails, if it
is ignored with German naval station
in the Caribbean and an Asiatic naval
station in Lower California the Pana-
ma canal is as worthless to us for
strategic purposes as the Dardanelles
to Russia today"
| Mr. Root said the letter of Foreign
Minister Zimmerman of Germany to
Mexico proposing an alliance of Mexico
and Japan for the dismemberment Of
| the United States revealed a subtle
purpose which has been thought out
and which is being worked out and
which will continue to be worked out
until this country stands alone and
defenseless against immediate and
contiguous superior military power
Now, if our voice can be heard, he
declared in closing, "if we can do some
thing. anything to make our govern
ment feel that the free and loyal people
of America want it to assert the prin-
ciples of American liberty, freedom and
to assert them with the power of its
great people, for Gods sake let's do it.
Continued on Page Tvo)