The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-27
PACIFISTLEADER
 CALLED TO TIME. BY COOLIDGE
Defense Day Condemned .s By Misrepresentation, / 4 Says President

t--. .l sq WASHINGTON, President Coolidge
 GAlieves in adequate military protection
 6r the. United States and considers it I.7s ssunfair" that the spokesmen for pacif- E--rtsm have condemned through the device l ! of misrepresentation' the government ,splans for National Defense Day on Sep z eember 12
 slN The President thus made known his z sttitude toward national preparedness =s 1n letter of rebuke addressed today to I7-. Frederick J. Libby, executive secretary Lief the National Council for Prevention --Fef War. Mir. Coolidge's letter was in reply to request from Libby for in- F.. dorsement of a peace demonstration, planned in connection with the tenth anniversary of the outbreak of the great war.
 slal The most hearty sympathy for every sT practical proposal to minimize the danger of war" was expressed by the President, but he denounced efforts of if ehe pacifists to show that anything F. Smilitaristic" was implied in the observ- ance of National Defense Day. Declar- f 7 ing his opposition to robbing the na. zTtion of its safeguards, the President +, wrote:
 sasiss To Avoid Danger
 7. T wish crime might be abolished, but would not therefore abolish courts F. &nd police protection. wish war might
 be made impossible, but would not | leave my country unprotected mean While.''
 = -if There was no justification, u letter I -s-eaid, for considering National Defense
 Day as militaristic gesture or as con
 stituting a mobilization day" De- -= -claring his opposition to a large stand, ing army, the President explained the purpose of the maEeuvers as follows:
 ''I am trying to work out a method z-- by which we can have constantly, as ]. : we; have now, an exceedingly small :. army, and leave our citizens free from that burden by letting them assume their
 own responsibility for defensive estab- -s Hshment sufficient to provide for do-
 nestle peace and order, and national de- fense.
 rs:g 'sInstead of being a military gesture this plan is the exact opposite. It~is snor-militaristie gesture for the purpose of keeping down to its lowest possible = point the professional military organi-
 zation of the United States. Our coun-. atry has always relied chiefly for it's defense upon the readiness of it's pa- --triotic manhood to take up arms when necessity presented. After the great military effort of the United States in
 the World war our army was demobil- ized more rapidly and completely than
 that of any other warning nation.
 Not only this, but the government
 of the United States initiated the Wash
 ington conference on limitation of
 armament which brought about highly
 important reduction in the naval estab--
 lfshments of the great powers, and which, sought, though without results,
 to effect also an agreement for reduc- :. tion of armies. UndiscourHged by the . failure to effect a limitation of armies,
 our government's authorized spokesmen have repeatedly since that tine de-
 cJared their wish to bring about q fur
 ther consideration of this question,
 with view to accomplishing general
 reduction of armed forces by land.
 Condemned Out Of Hand
 'In the face of this record, which is
 known to all the world, it seems unfair
 that the plans for defense day should
 be condemned out of hand, simply
 through the device of misrepresentation
 Our government is compelled to con :; front the realities of the world. One J. of. these is that international agreement . for limitation of armies has not been brought into effect. That being the case
 our laws provide a small permanent
 army and contemplate it's expansion to z meet emergencies, should they arise E Defense day is intended to bring to the people reminder of their relations 2. to, and dependence upon, this skeleton
 defense establishment, in case our coun.
 try be attacked. There can be no
 doubt that failure to prepare for ~the
 possibility of war at a time when that possibility was really imminent result
 ed in great hardship, unnecessary ex- ss pense and the unjustifiable prolonga- :. tion of the World war. To state this is |: but to state what everybody knows.' sl :; The observance planned for Septem-
 her 12, the President concluded, was merely in compliance with the pur-
 poses of the national defense law of s-'102O. ss..s....