The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-25
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OUR COUNTRY's DEFENDERS

OUR COUNTRIES DEFENDERS
 The situation becomes truly serious when the wife of g maker of the nations laws breaches that we as people must discour- age our sons from attending the military training camps. "Let us dissuade our sons," says Mrs. LaFolette, from succumbing to the insidious propaganda of the mlitarists."
 Mrs. LaFollette's idea is to frighten the public with the display of the failure of kaiserism, for she says: Germany stands today vanquished and humiliated in the eyes of the world all because of militarism de- veluped to a degree which our militarists apparently hope to attain;" but she does not confine herself to this thesis, and it is evi- dent that she is opposed to soldering of any and every sort. In this she reflects Communist opinion that is rife in Wiscon- sin. The lady has the right to express her opinion of the militarism of Germany. We want nothing of that kind here. She errs gFievously, however, when she charges that our modest efforts to train the youth in the art of defending their native land have tho militarist motive back of them. That tho efforts have no relation to militarism Is ahown by the fact that there is no con- script system, no large standing army in proportion to the population and no at- tempt to create superior military class; the army is still republican and will remain 50. There is no military hierarchy in this country, and no purpose to create ono, not withstanding Mrs. LaFollette's assertion that President Harding, Secretary Denby, Gen eral Pershing, and other national leaders arc bent upon instituting the German system of control by force of arms.
 Government reports show that in num- Der of soldiers to population the United States ranks last, while France is first; that the expenditures for the army are only 7.75 per cent. of the country's total revenue, while France spends 1866 per cent. on her army. If the United States should maintain an army in proportion to her wealth as does France, the army would consist not of 11s,5oo, but of 2,265,099 men, or if the army were to be numbered in proportion to population in the same ra- tio as the French army to tho French popu- lation, it would contain 2,104,000. The cost per capita is but $2,e9 here, compared with the cost to the French of $20.60. These figures show that we are far away from attainment of continental militarism.
 The wife of the Wisconsin senator would have the whole military establishment done away with. She foresees America sacrificed to the fetish of war, with the Alexanders, Caesars and Napoleons striding over help less and suffering people. The soldier, in her opinion, is always an oppressor. She would abolish all of his class. No ono, she says, should be trained in the art of war, for in that direction lies militarism.
 The soldier, however, Is primarily de- fender of tho country. The greatest heroes of the world were soldiers. David, who established the independence of Israel, was thought worthy of the friendship of Jeho- yah; Leonidas, who died at Thermopylae in tho effort to stop the invading Persians, was . soldier; Themistocles, who met and de- feated tho foreign enemy at the strait of Salamis, was . soldier. He saved Europe from eastern domination and the people of that continent from slavery. Alfred the 0zeat, who freed England from the con- quering invaders, the Danes, was . soldier; Winkelried, who threw himself upon the Austrian phalanx, and, dying, opened the way for his fellows to achieve the victory at Sempach, thereby gaining for Switzer- land her freedom, was a soldier; William the Silent, the bulwark of the Protestant faith and the Eberator of the Netherlands from the Spanish yoke, was soldier; George Washington, whose leadership and sacrifices made possible the great American republic, was . soldier; and so also with Garibaldi the liberator of Italy from one hundred years of Austrian despotism and cruelty; Foch, the great French general, and Albert king of the Belgians.
 Why is 1t that the world has always hon. ored and rewarded the soldier? Certainly not because he is butcher of men, for, if such were the case, the world would give it's greatest honors to desperadoes and mur- derers instead of hanging them. The sol dier is honored because he, of all men, is ready to face the public enemy and, if need be, lay down his life for his country. Pacifism that dishonors those who by their devotion do the country a great and neces- sary service is tnged with disloyalty It seeks to destroy the safeguard of the re- public.
 HOW LARGE A MEMBERSHIP?
 Does it pay to carry dead wood? Is there strength in numbers? These are