Evening star., 1932-04-06
Army Day.

Through Pennsylvania avenue, Wash
tngton's Via Triumphalis. the tread Of
marching men resounds today in COM
memoration of the United States en-
try into the World War and in celebra-
ton of Army day. For the nonce the
Nations thoughts revert to that fate
ful April, fifteen years ago, when Presi-
dent Wilson called upon the country
to give without stint in the cause
for which the American people were
about to pledge their all.
No element of the national commu-
nifty responded to the summons with a
greater alacrity or sense of patriotic
duty than the United States Army
our military establishment of all grades
Regulars, National Guard, Reserves
soon to be amalgamated under the
common denoninator of the American
Expeditionary Forces, were destined to
bring fresh luster to the flag and to
prove anew, II proof were needed, that
the source from which the country in
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ing electives is an inexhaustible
reservoir.
On Army day it is fitting to recall
that in no other country in the world
do professional soldiers engage in such
a variety of non-military activities in
peacetime as they do in the United
States. Few Americans are conscious
of that. The primary purpose of the
War Department is to provide for the
national defense, and its chief RESPONSE
bility lies in the execution of the mill
tary policies of the Government But
the Army has plenty of warleSs jobs.
In October, 1929, it completed the
canalization of the Ohio River. Under
its direction the Great Lakes are being
improved for increased transportation,
together with the plan for connecting
the Great Lakes with the Mississippi
through the Illinois Waterway and
through the Mississippi to the Gulf.
Army engineers are deepening the chan
mel up the Mississippi as far as Mime
apolis and st. Paul. They are estab-
fishing reliable navigation on the Mis-
souri, River. The completion of the
upper Mississippi and the Missouri
projects viii provide water transpor-
tation to the great agricultural regions
of the Northwest.
On the Pacific Coast all the way
from Harbor Refuge, in Alaska, to San
Diego, the Army Engineer Corps has
embarked upon intensive improve
ment work. In the execution Of these
various river and harbor improvements
and food control works the Army En-
gineers employ approximately $4,000
civilians and conduct business aggre-
eating about $1OO,O00,O00 annually.
Within the past year they have had
entrusted to them roundly thousand
projects authorized by Congress. These
include the all-important task of max
ing the Nicaragua Canal survey.
AS purely military enterprise the
United States Army is an extremely
modest establishment. No first-class
power on the face of the earth main
tains so slender a standing army. AS
President Hoover often and aptly has
remarked, Uncle Sam has far more
policemen than soldiers. Our force of
roundly 10000 men is barely adequate
for fundamental domestic purposes in
the continental United States, the
Canal Zone, Hawaii, the Philippines
and Porto Rico. No nation is or can
possibly be menaced by American mil
itarism," as typified by the Army.
Army day is not only a time for
renewing our gratitude to our soldiers.
It is a highly appropriate hour for re-
solving that economies in governmental
expenditure, however imperative in
other directions, shall stop short Of
cheeseparing at the expense of an al
ready skeletonized and semi-impover-
ished United States Army