OCR Text |
Show UNPREPARED, ALWAYS. Our army officers aro discussing freely in the dispatches tho probable attacking lines of th.o Japanese upon this country in caso of war. and thoy dwell earnestly upon, tho inadequate-noss inadequate-noss of tho forces that tho Uniicd States could bring to bear to ropcl a serious invasion. Thoy insist that tho country is unprepared for war, and that the forces, even though tho whole country wore drained of 'troops and militia in order to protect the west coast, would still be woefully deficient to do tho work, which is flatly pronounced pro-nounced to be practically impossible with any forces that wo could immediately imme-diately assemble All this is an old. story, quite true, quito trite, nud exactly in line with tho experience which tho United States has had in all of its wars. There has never been a time whon wo were prepared pre-pared for war. In fact, wo make it a specialty to be unprepared. And then, when there is a serious war, such as tho War of tho Rebellion turned out to be, wo havo armies to mako and season while the war is in progress. Thin involves a sickening loss of tho lives of men, and a waste of money and. matorial that, goes far to drain tho financial and material" resources of the country. But what would you have? Wo aro determined not to bo prepared for war. Wo aro determined not to bo a war powor. Wo see our Congress refusing to keep up tho navy, even to tho comparative com-parative war strength to which "it attained at-tained some four or flvo ycrns ago. "It really is deteriorating, as ships alawys do deteriorate, and wo .aro falling behind be-hind in naval power. Timo was whon wo woro a good second to Groat Britain. Brit-ain. A long way iccond. to bo sure, but still in advance of any other power. pow-er. Wo havo now been considerably overpassed by German'; and Japan, in tho Ia3'ing down of three now super-dreadnoughts, will in tho next two years come vory near catching up with us in sea-power, provided our Congress maintains its present attitude in opposition to tho nnvy. It is truo that with tho opening of tho Panama canal, probably within the 3'ear, what-ovor what-ovor frea-forco wo havo will bo availablo avail-ablo on cither tho Atlantic or tho Pacific Pa-cific at need. But if the total sea-forco sea-forco is kept down to its present limits, lim-its, or below, it will not bo o much service to us in tho face of a superior naval power with which wc might bo at war. And so our uupreparcdncss not only continues, but is spren'diug to tho navy. It is a hopeless business to got this country waked up to tho danger of war until war is actually upon ua; and then wo kill and disable our men by tho scores of thousands in tho making of an army, to a far greater degrco than any enemy can possibly do. But it is a price that wo havo to pay for uuprcparedncss, and wo seem not only quito willing but determined to pay that price. All that any ono can do is to point out .tho Inovitablo results of unpreparedness. Tho country, however, how-ever, rcfuscg to consider explanations and expositions of that kind. Those havo been made timo after timo, but with no effect. When made by army officers, tho picas aro dismissed with a sneer ns something that tho military men want for their own advantage to build up a big army so that thoy can enjoy tho benefits of command and parade in tho gorgeous trappings of war. When presented hy civilians, the reply iy that tho civilian doesn't know what ho is talking about. And so the proposition is met on both ends of tho lino with sneers. Thoso sneers cost tho country tremendously, but thoso who mnko them caro littlo about It, because thoy aro not tho ones who suffer. Tho ones who lako tho brunt of tho unpreparcdncsa aro tho patriotic, patri-otic, tho willing, tho solf-sacrificing, the men who lovo tho Republic and who are so devoted to the flag that they are willing to offer their lives for its protection. But these aro a scorned class until tho time comes when they aro needed, and then all sorts of promises prom-ises arc mado to thorn, which in the fulfillment call forth, many a grumble and reproach in after years, just as tho men who went to tho front in tho War of tho Rebollion are and have been for many years, subject to con-tumoly con-tumoly and reproach becauso of the pensions which thoy draw. Thoso pon-sions, pon-sions, howover, were not only freely promised, during tho timo of stress, but immensely moro was promised than has over boon granted, as tho taking care of the soldiers' families, seeing that thoy novor wanted, and all that sort of thing, which promise was mostly ncg-loctod ncg-loctod after tho volunteers wqro "safely enrolled and had gono to tho front. Our trained military experts aro sounding tho usual noto of alarm. It i3 an alarm that ought to bo heeded, and that ought to causo Congress to act instantly and effectively by way of eircngtboning tho army. But Congress Con-gress will not do it. and tho administration admin-istration will not back uny such effort unless tho war actually comes. And then it will bo too lato to prepare for it, and wo cannot defend without the usual dreadful and needless loss of human hu-man life, in tho preparation. |