Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-09-24
johnson Hits
Talk Of Cut
In Army
Need Men Now Due 10
Philippines, Iceland
BY HUGH S. JOHNSON

II1EIkE IL al ClOuu Oil the nOll-
i Zon of some under current dis
cusSion i'm Washington. AS yet
perhaps mo bigger than mans
hand But il broke in the public
prints recently i'm one of the
philosophical discussions of Mr..
Walter Lippmann TO some such
effect as this:
isn't il time to reconsider
whether we need a mass army
and didn't we make mistake I'm
the panic following the French
collapse in assuming that we
need TO equip and train a large
land force
The general argument, as I
understand it mot Mr.. Lipp-
MAINS alonc) was that when we
decided to rcarm there was dan
ger of the British navy being
wiped out and of Japan seriously
threatening us i'm the Pacific
Therefore we plunged 10 con-
scription and the creation of a
modern army of 100000 men
to defend our shores against any
attack on this hemisphere. Now
that these dangers have passed
isn't it time TO white down our
army plans?
4 S FAR as this column is con-
"A CernCd. il never did believe
in any danger of the elimination
of the British fleet nor any Jap
ancSc naval combination threat
ening our shores in the Pacific.
Above all, It has constantly
argued that the threat of any
great modern overseas land ex-
peditionary force 10 the shores
Of the Americas was ridiculously
absurd.
There was one qualification:
That We promptly train a rea-
S0nablc m q ern army suffi-
cl0ntly equipped 10 prevent a
sudden incurSion with such SUI
pcnor armored and armed equip
ment and training as 70 make
mere numbers Of bow-and-a arrow
troops Of no avail
The great rich and powerful
empires OF Mexico and Peru
were taken by Cortez and Pr
Zarro with a few platoonS of
SpaniardS. and the disparity be-
tween the equipment they used
and the arrows. obSidian axes
and cotton amor of the lncaS
and AZtcCS was scarcely greater
than that between Hitler'S PAN
ger troops and our ancient
equipment.
At the beginning Of our land
armament effort, we were too
far behind Nazi military de-
NclppncntS 10 sec them with a
telescope. We are still nearly
as far behind although progress
is accelcratng.
GETTING into a position in
" readiness for whatever
may happen IS no slight task.
1t takes mtcrmlnable training
and education with modern
arms and we do not yet have
the arms TO do the training.
Any kind oi safe and decent
establishment requires reserves
of - least partially trained
troops and We are only nuW
slowly beginning to build up
those reserves.
Furthermore. we don't know
in what direction our land forces
must be used. Already by under
taking tremendous expansion
of fdf-llung outpoSts from the
Philippines 10 Iceland we have
imposed demands on our army
that require multiplication of its
manpowcr. Then people talk
about cutting II down!
ONE doesn't need to speculate
~ long or bum much midnight
OIL 10 discover what is behind
this suggestion.
1t IS a hope that greater and
greater proportions of our in
CrcasIng stream of military pro-
duction may be diverted from
our Own land defenSes and de-
lyered TO Britain and especially
to Russia, regardless of its
effect on our safety.
We ought not 10 do that. This
is a world of excursions and
alarms. Nations fight on one
side today and on another to-
morrow Civilization abroad has
degenerated into barbarism and
bandItry.
Prudence in our own best in
tcreSt Is one thing. Stripping
ourselves OF a sufficient modern
defense against anything that
may happen is quite another
thing.
Especially as we may be in
directly arming future potential
enemies. Let's do the best we
can on all fronts hut let's not
forget the home front. II is our
first and greatest responsibility.
Distributed BY King Features synd. Inc
Reproduction in whole or in part
strictly prohibited.