Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1920-03-23
UNIVERSAL MILITARY
TRAINING

4 Dy ludlOI w. f., 11dSCllluG, UClOI0 luC
Frank H. Brown Post of the American
Legion at Ripon, Wis. Major Hasel-
tine is the son of Mr.. and Mrs. G. P.
Haseltine formerly of this city ard
Wausau was his birth place. He Is
well known to many of our people.
Major Haseltine was in the worlds
war and spent over year in France.
The address is good reading, inter-
esting, convincing. 1t is taken from
the Ripon Weekly Press:
Mr.. Commander, and Companions:
81 came here tonight to bring be-
fore you matter, which to my mind
is the most vitality important of any
issue before the American public to-
day, and which at the same time
seems to be receiving the least ear
nest consideration.
take it that every man here is In
favor of Universal Military Training.
The idea is so fundamentally
sound-so fair, so reasonable-in
short so distinctly common sense,
that it seems as if everyone who has
given the matter any thought at all
must recognize not only it's justice
but it's necessity.
/ am not sure how closely you have
followed the course of proposed legis-
lation along these lines in Congress.
Their idea seems, for some reason
or other to be meeting with strong
opposition, and stands more than a
fair chance of being defeated unless
the men who make our laws are Civ
en- to understand in some unmistak-
able manner that the people back
1Nr. e.. 60,
Apparently our representatives in
both houses of Congress are at their
old game of playing party politics
with their eye on the next election
and personally 1 am thoroughly dis
gusted with them. l used to call my
self Republican. I am now neither
a Republican or a Democrat-but
just a plain American citizen, and /
have no time for any congressman,
either Republican or Democrat, who
puts his own reelection above the
good of our country
The opponents of Universal Mill
tary Training fall back, in the last
analysis, upon just two arguments
(prejudices is the better world the
first the bogey of militarism, and the
second is the cry of economy"
Let us see how these two stand up
when looked at fairly and squarely.
Militarism!-Weh have Just disband-
ed the biggest and best army ever
raised by the United States-and yet
how many of these men--how many
of you, who composed this army are
imbued with the spirit of militarism
The very thought makes you laugh
it is so ridiculous. You know and
know that such a thing as militarism
in this country is as impossible as to
establish a kingdom, and the idea ex-
lists only in the fevered Imagination
of those who attempt to scare the pub
lie with this fancied menace.
Universal Military Training is the
very opposite of militarism. 1t is
the most democratic idea which has
ever been suggested and would bring
to the growing youth of this country
good health good habits, respect
for discipline, and what is more,
unity and 4 sense of obligation and
duty to our country and our flag,
which is the greatest asset any ma
tion can have.
So much for Militarism. "a
Now as to economy.
The cost if this war to the United
States alone was approximately thir-
ty billions of dollars-thirty thousand
millions of dollars-a sum so vast
that the figures are simply meaning
less.
Does any one seriously believe that
If we had had a system of universal
military training, and Germany knew
that we had five million, eight mil
lion, or ten million trained men who
could be called and mobilized with all
their equipment in a few weeks she
would have risked bringing us in the
war?
Certainly she would not, and we
should have had no war!
The estimated cost of universal
military training is about one hun
dred fifty millions of dollars a year.
and when these politicians point out
to their constituents at home that
In their capacity as. watch dogs of
the treasury they are saving this
amount, it looks like a large sum.
But what they do not tell-and what
most of the people back home do not
realize-is that the lack of universal
military training not only cost us
that thirty thousand millions of dol
lars but that the interest alone upon
this sum, which We are now paying,
and must continue to pay, is one thou
sand two hunderd millions of dollars
per year, or almost ten times as much
as the cost of adequate protection.
That's economy with vengence, isn't
it? And that is the kind of economy
which these fellows stand for.
They talk about the necessity of
bringing down the High Cost of Liv-
ing and they tell you that the high
cost of living is the direct result of
the war which they were so "econo-
mica" as to bring upon us?
They say the war is over. tell
you it isn't over, and just so sure as
we don't adopt a sane and consis-
tent military policy we are going to
have continuation of it in which
we may not be as lucky as we were
In this one, with allies to hold back
the enemy while we are getting ready.
| Germany miscalculated when she
brought us into the war but she did
int miscaleulate very far, and we
reached there Just in the nick of time.
But do you realize that with all of our
magnificent preparation the Ameri-
can First Army, of which you boys
were part, never fired an American
she'll from an American gun during
the entire war? We should have been
formidable enemy shouldn't We
without the French and British to
furnish us guns and ammunitiono
/ Further we never had an American
combat plane on the front. True, we