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Show T11I1G 1j !l 0 Major General Scott, Chief of Staff, and Major Ma-jor General Wood Ask Abandonment of the Volunteer System Before Senate Subcommittee. Sub-committee. PLANS CALL FOR 3,000,000 MEN Claim Made the U. S. Would Be Defenseless in Case of Attack by Combination of Powers; Pow-ers; Points to Great Britain's Alliance With Japan. WASHINGTON", Dec. IS. The mobilization mo-bilization of tho National Guard for bonier service was described as a mil-.Jtary mil-.Jtary failure, emphasizing the urgent mg necessity for abandonment of the vol-unteor vol-unteor system as the nation's reliance lor defense, in statements today by Major General Hugh L. Scott, chief of stuff of tbe army, and Major General Leonard Wood, commanding tho eastern department, before the senate subcommittee subcom-mittee considering the Chamberlain uni-- uni-- eisal military training bill. Both of the generals advocated universal uni-versal training. General Wood declared 1 that tho country now was utterly defenseless de-fenseless against a well organized foe; that the mobilization was a tragedy, and that if the guardsmen had mot good troops they "would never have known what hit them." General Scott told the committee that lessons drawn from the present war proved that in case of war with a first-class power the United States would need immediately a trained force of 1,300,000 men, with another .1,500,000 available within ninety days. Suggests More Pay. On the other side of the question the committee heard Walter L. Fisher of Chicago, former secretary of tho interior, inte-rior, who opposed universal service, though he jdood for adequate defense measures and suggested a regular army of hall' a million. Ho thought if the pay of privates were raised to $30 a month the service would be more attractive at-tractive to recruits. General Wood, from whose department depart-ment went 5,000 of the guardsmen sent ' to the border, said of the men enrolled when the call came that an average of SO per cent of each company had to be dropped for physical defects and the organizations went to the border filled up with green men. NCalls It a Tragedy. ' "It's been a tragedy,' he said, "but J worth all it cost it e only profit by ! it. It w as not the f aul t of tho o f f i - cers or nien, but of the defective sys- tern. It we "had been compelled to meet i uood troops down there, it would have I been a scene of carnage. The guards i men would never have known what hit ' them. ' ' t "What should we do with the nation- nl fuard, General?'' asked Senator F rat iv. " it should be replaced as rapidlv as posible with men trained under a "universal "uni-versal service system," General Wood replied. "When the svstem has been well started. I would drop the national guard entirely from any scheme of national na-tional defense, although we want everv ! officer and man of them in the new plan. But it must be a straight-out federal force. " ''Yet the states must maintain the ! national cuard or some other force-' Senator Rnulv sucested. " I heheve a constabulary should be maintained by each ftate, "not a mili- f tary force, " explained the general. n "The police are trained to control while i troops are trained to kill." Wood's Plan. t General Wood outlined his own plan 1 for universal service, which in effect j would be a combination of the Oiamber- lain bill itself and an adaptation of the Australian system, and the French cen-rral cen-rral staff p'an. His scheme would "pro- kvtde that a'i physically fit men be -jiv-cn six months : training during their nineteenth year, passing then into The organized reserve to be available for i , (Continued on Page Two.) UNIVERSAL HIM TUB IS URGED (Continued from Page One.) first line duty between the ages of 21 and 22, after which they would be. passed into the unorganized reserve until un-til 23. The result would be a constant force of trained men with full equipment equip-ment of more than 4, Odd. 000, he said, in addition to a standing army of 25'V j 000 composed of men who were pro-1 fessional sol. Hers bv personal inclination. inclina-tion. ' I do not think any nation would attack us,'' he remarked. ! Feeling of Nation. Senator Thomas asked what the genera.! gen-era.! thought of the feeling of the nation toward universal service propo.-als. "I believe the people will indorse it today," to-day," General Wood answered. 'Xa'cor is with you when you make it aV:solutely certian that all men, rich or poor, will share alike In military service." Senator Thomas called attention to Mr. Fisher's sugge-suon that raising the pay of the regular army to SCO a month would bring in all the men necessary. The general gen-eral said this merely would extend the evils of an already hopeless military system sys-tem that had failed the nation in every war. "And in this present mobilization." he added, "'we cannot get the men for either the regulars or national guard." General Scott will go into details as to the mobilization when he resumes his testimony tes-timony tomorrow. Ho has at his d isposal an exhaustive report compiled by the militia mi-litia bureau after detailed accounts had been received from all regular officers assigned as-signed to mustering work. The formal declaration of the general staff against the national guard system, already presented pre-sented by General Scott, is understood to be founded upon this evidence, as well as upon the conclusions of military students. General Scott told the committee that the army general staff recommended without with-out apology that the volunteer svstem be discarded because "the time has come when this country, unless it intends to avoid wars 'at any cost,' must resort to 'universal liability to military training and service." Arraigns Volunteer System. Arraigning the volunteer system as extravagant, ex-travagant, inefficient and dangerous, the chief of staff told the committee that universal uni-versal training would be democratic, reliable, re-liable, efficient and economical, and within with-in a few years practically render the United States immune from attack. "It would be democratic," he said, "because "be-cause the burden of national defense would fall equally upon all citizens. It would make it impossible for any man or group of men to trade upon the nation's necessities in time of war. The system would be reliable because it would produce pro-duce each year the number of men necessary neces-sary to be trained. It would be economical economi-cal because it would be based upon rec-ognation rec-ognation by the people of the duty of the individual to render personal service and in carrying it into effect the government would not have to compete in the labor market. It would be efficient because It would enable us to prepare adequately for war before war comes." At the outset General Scott pointed out I that the Mexican, crisis had failed to re-jcruit re-jcruit many national guard organizations even to their minimum peace strength. "The failure should make the whole people realize that the volunteer system does not and probably will not give us either the men we need in peace, or for service in war," said he. Reviewing the intensive training which European and other nations require, he declared that if American troops ever were to compete with highly trained and splendidly disciplined disci-plined forces they would require training train-ing and discipline at least equal to that of their opponents. Lessons of European War. The lessons -of the European war, the general said, had demonstrated that a higher standard of training and discipline disci-pline were required than was popularly considered necessary before and that most of the European nations for that reason found they could not develop them in less than two" years with the colors. "It should be obvious," said he, "that 192 hours" training prescribed for the national na-tional guard is utterly inadequate to prepare pre-pare this force for war service." For war with a first-clas power, the general staff has previously estimated that 500,000 fully equipped troops should be ready at the outbreak and that 500,000 more should be available in ninety days. In 'view of the lessons of the war, the general was now of the opinion that these numbers should be tripled and that 1.-500,000 1.-500,000 fullv equipped and ready troops should be available, with another 1,500,000 to follow in ninety days. "This is due," said he. "to the fact that one of the powers involved in the war and whose territory extends the whole length of our northern frontier has increased in-creased its army from a relatively small force to a strength approximating that of the other great European powers. Due to the fact that our northern neighbor is largely an island empire, a great portion of any trained force it may possess can be snared for use fn a distant theater of operations, because, being an Island empire, the control of the sea gives it practically immunity from invasion where troops would have to be transported across the sea, "It should be pointed out also that our northern neighbor is in alliance with a powerful Oriental nation another Island empire and for the same reason when acting in alliance with a power which has control of the sea, has ability to send its army of 2.225,000 men to any part of the world without danger of invasion. "I think a mere statement of these facts makes It clear that at present we are practically defenseless before the veteran vet-eran armies of our northern neighbors, and could easily be crushed by the existing exist-ing coalition of the island empires. "I have said enough, by way of illustration illus-tration only, to make it clear that if we are menaced by one of these powers alone, having lost control of the sea, we should need more troops for defensive purposes than have entered Into the popular conception con-ception of our military problems heretofore. hereto-fore. "A factor which has In the past played a part in protecting us from recent aggressions ag-gressions by any of the grat nations of Europe, in spite of our comparatively defenseless de-fenseless condition, was the so-called balance of power. When the European war is over there wdll still be two groups of powers, which will permit the superior group to hold the "inferior group in balance bal-ance with only a portion of its force and will enable it to hold the remainder ready for action outside of Europe. It is manifest mani-fest that if a coalition of the great powers, pow-ers, as they existed on August, 1914. were to have made war on us, we could have been invaded by very large forces within about one month from the declaration of war. Might Prevent War. "While a war waged against us by an alliance may in the future be a possibility, it is not a probability, and it is believed that if we provide an adequate army to defend the country against any single nation the probability of a war between the United Statos and a coalition of powers pow-ers would grow even more remote." After having discussed reasons why the general staff believes twelve months intensive in-tensive training is the minimum to prepare pre-pare troops for war. General S-cott stated at length why the staff recommended that no further reliance be placed on the volunteer vol-unteer system and urged universal liability lia-bility to military training and service. Of all the nations of the world, he said, the United States and China alone relied on volunteers to defend their national existence. exist-ence. He recounted the failures of the voluntary svstem in the revolutionary war. the war of 1S12. and how it failed both the confederacy and the union in the civil war. "The system is ineffective," he saia, "because under it we must wait for war to come before preparing our defense. We must wait for an emergency before beginning be-ginning to raise, train and equip the5 vast armies which war with any first-class power or coalition would render necessary. neces-sary. A nation that is so short-sighted with respect to its man power cannot !(j expectei to look far into the future with respect to munitions and supplies. "If universal liability to military training train-ing and service were ordained, it would mean only that the people as a whole have, through their representatives, recognized rec-ognized the duty of the individual to prepare pre-pare himself to defend his country and to defend It in case of need." President Wilson told callers today he had reached no decision on universal training and will not do so until definite measures have been laid before , him. He told callers the idea was attractive, at-tractive, but that it depended on definite plans; Ho does not agree that the national na-tional guard has failed. |