The Cordova daily times., 1921-07-09
SATURDAY, JULY 9, 1921
ARMIES OF THE WORLD TODAY

Are we drifting again into a state of ma tional unpreparedness which existed prior to' the World war and which cost us countless billions in money and thousands of valuable lives!
 It would seem so, because congress has decided on small regular army.
 In connection with the reduction of tn" size cf the army in the United States, it is of interest to note what the size of the stand in@ armies are today in other countries. Th" proponents of preparedness have invariably pointed to the sturdy republic of Switzerland, whose citizens have always been ready to take up arms to prevent their country being ovcrruu by the larger nations which sur round it. And today Switzerland has larger regular army than any oth" nation in propor. tiou to it~ size It~ army numbers 100000 men. or A25 per cent of itS population of 4OOOOOO. Greece stands next, with 2+O,0OO men in it~ army out of a population of 1,1OO, orr, or percentage of &.2O.
 But other nations have large forces under arms today. Poland is credited with an army of S15,OOO men; France has 735,OOO in its regular army, though it recently mobizcd considerably more when ;hc question of Ger man separations and the fulflmcnt by Ger manyi of the terms of the treaty of Versailles bccamc a burning issue. Great Britain has an /army of 4250OO, including l30,O0O Indian tsioops serving outside of India.
 BoISbcvist Russia, it is estimated, has l,500, GOO men under army. The figures given for the armies of the new nations created by the NcrScaiIcs treaty of peace, after the over throw of the central powers, do much to add to the impression that Europe today continues t0 be an armed camp. Esthonia, with a popu- lation of 1,2O0OOO, has an army of 36,1OO men; Lithuania, with population of 2,OOO,- GOO, has 10000 men in its army; Ietzia, pop uIation, 2,6O50OO; army, 45,OOO; Czccho-Slo- Vakia population, l32l5,OOO; army, 2l6,SOO
 Of the old countries Italy has an army of 464,0O0, with a population of 3674O,OOO toI draw from; Spain has an army of 216,OOO, out of population of 2O,695OOO
 Germany, it appears, has the same size standing army today that the United States will have when the provisions of the new army bill have become completely effective, 100000, with a population of ll,OS6,OOO. Aus tria, the other defeated European power, one time an empire, has an army of only 22,0O0 men, but its population has been reduced to| a mere G,4OO,O0O souls by the dismembcrmcnt of the empire.
 The standing army of Mexico today is 90,O0O men, out of a population of 1G000,000. of the South American republics, Brazil con tains the largest regular army, 37,0O0 men, out of a population of 22,000,00O, and Argen- tina is second with 220OO men and a popuIa- ton of S,3OO00O
 China looms large with regular army of 1369,OOO out of a population estimated at 4O0,0O000O Japan is credited with regular army of 273,00O men and a population of 5S,OOO00O. Of course, there are a vast num- Der of Japanese trained reservists, however, who may be called upon in case of war Tur- key in its so-called Nationalist army, has 100000 men under arms.
 It is clear, therefore, that except in those countries which suffered defeat in the World war, little has been done toward a reduction in land armament; in fact, the armies are swollen far out of proportion to the resources