The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-09-15
WILL WOOD IS
INSISTENT ON
ARMS SLASH
u. S. Must Cut First, Says
HooSier, Backing BOrah
Program.
INFLUENCE WILL COUNT
Sits on Money Bags and
Threatens to Choke
Off Wastes.

BIZ Scripps -Hoiodrd Newspaper Alliance
WASHIN TON, Sept. IS
Whether Senator William E. Borah's
program of a f1ve-year naval holi-
day meets with failure Or success at
the Geneva conference of the world
powers, the arny-navy budgets dur
ing the rest of the economic depres-
sion will be drastically cut if Rep
resentative Will Wood (Rep., Ind
has his way.
AS chairman Of the house appro-
priations committee, Woods infu-
ence will count heavily when the
1888 armament requests come be-
fore congress in December.
With Borah demanding further
efforts to disarm in the senate, and
Wood holding down appropriations
III the house, it is expected the
United States will show the way to
further reductions even before the
Geneva conference opens.
Sees Room for Economies
Both Borah and Wood, as well as
Dino Grand, Italys foreign min
lister, have based their argument
for a naval construction truce on
the fact that it would be advisable
to wait until the nations have dis
cussed and acted on this problem
next February.
1t also is understood that the
EoOya,. q 1y17i1oic+ro f;O,7 ,1,LioL1 Iooe
high hopes for favorable action at
Geneva, will be content to keep
armament expenditures to a mini
mum.
While the Hoover administration
takes the view that it has touched
bottom in reducing expenditures of
the army, Wood thinks that there
is room for economies in the mil
itary establishment, as we'll as in
pairing down the $1,000,000,000 new
naval construction called for under
the London treaty.
U. S. Should Lead Way
In urging that money be used to
furnish unemployment and relieve
distress, he thinks the army also
can contribute to savings all around.
cit is true we have a small army"
he said today, "but it is not so
small as people think. The figures
show that we have more than
100000 men in the army, navy, ma
rine corps, coast guard and organ
IF 81
Then we have about 100000
well-trained and experienced men
who got into the World war SO
young that they will be good for five
or six years to come. Our mill
tary expenditures are low, but they
could, perhaps, be lower.
CIT United States should lead
the we,v. We are preparing to fight
nobody, and nobody is preparing to
fight us. No nation can afford to
fight, or even to prepare for the
next war under existing economic
conditions.
Lead World in Spending
Although this country has led in
advocating disarmament move
ments, it still is spending more
money on armies and navies than
any other nation in the world. Part
of that may be due to the higher
pay we give our men, but it is fact
that we top every other nation with
our combined expenditures of much
more than $700,OOO,O00 a year. Rus
STA, strangely enough, comes second
1.-THE world now is spending more
than $4,0OO,000,O0O a year in getting
ready for the next war. That means
that the average American, and
European, too, is paying $50 to $40 a
year in getting ready for another
war. 1t does not include what he
is paying for past wars.
1T has got to stop, and we should
make a beginning. If the people
support a movement to cut arma-
ment costs, congress will do it. And,
after all, it is the people who pay
the bills of war;