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Show LiAKUNER REVIEWS' WILSOIHJPEECH1; Declares President Has Set Up a "Bogey Man of Straw" Country Unprepared for War. LACKING EQUIPMENT Coast Defenses Have Not : Enough Ammunition for an Hour's Fighting. Washington. Dec. 10. Representative Representa-tive Gardner addressed the house today to-day on his resolution for Investigation Investiga-tion of the prt 'paredness of the nation for war. He prefaced his remarks by announcing that he had Introduced a bill to enact Into law Secretary Garrison's recommendations, in his an nual report published today, to recruit re-cruit the United States army to Its full war strength A large portion of his speech, Mr Gardner devoted to an analysis of President Wilson's references to national na-tional defense in his annual addreai to congress, Tuesday. Ho declared the president had set up a "bogev man of straw" and that, if war were to break today it would be found our coast defenses have not sufficient ammunition for an hour's fighting." Decries PrCsident'6 Attitude. " 'We must depend in every time of national peril upon citlzrnry trained and accustomed to arms.' says the president. "But how are we to get enough citizenry, as he calls us ordi nary people? Does the president realize re-alize that there are only 120.000 militiamen mili-tiamen in this whole nation? Does he understand that 23,n0n of them did j not even ibov up last year for an-I an-I nual inspection? Does he know that ,31.0m) did not appear at the annual encampment9 Is he aware that r3 000 or nearly half of this citizenry, never appeared at the rifle range during the whole course of last year?" Weapons of War. "Where i6 this citizenry to get the weapons of war ' According to the last report of the chief of staff we are short 316 field guns and 1,322,384 rounds of ammunition necessary to equip our militia In time of war Last year General Wood asked for enough guns and ammunition to bring the United States up to the standard of Bulgaria That modest demand waa gently but firmly rejected. I will not say that we have only enough field artillery ammunition to last for a single day's battle if all our guns were engaged, bul T will say that such Is the statement which has been made to me by one of the highest high-est officers in the United States army. ar-my. I do not however, heSiLite to assert that, If war were to break out today, it would be found that our coast defenses have not sufficient ammunition ammuni-tion for an hour's fighting The chief of stall' :ells us that the ammunition I for the coast defense mortars would I Inst one-half hour, and for the coast lefense guns three-quarters of an : hour Defense Entirely Inadequate. "In short, then, our officers and officials have told us that wp lack men for our navy, men for our coast defense, and men for our army; that we lack artillery and the ammunition with whih to charge that artillery, that we lack great warships to sail the seas and little scouts to act as their meS8 agen and their eyes; that we have a sadly deficient under-sea navy, and practically no overhead fleet at all. "I have proposed that an independ ent commission be appointed to investigate in-vestigate all these things, to recommend recom-mend to us a definite policy for our future guidance. "For the flrct time In the hislorv of this country so far as I know, a committee of this house has refused a hearing to one of the house members mem-bers Arbitration Grand Word. "Arbitration; What a grand word' All that Carnegie has to show for his money is an unprepared England and an unprepared BHeium. Possibly 1 ought to accord him one other scalp to his tomahawk, although that scalp ! made of Imitation hair The pacifists pacifi-sts boast that their efforts have at least made every nation di?e:iini the responsibility for the war Had Belgium, Bel-gium, like Switzerland and Holland put more confidence in her troops and less In arbitration and scraps of paper pa-per she might today be free from the agonv of Invasion "Yet every scrap of paper lo which America puts her sign manual musi be scrupulously redeemed. Come what may. we must fulfill our treaty obligations, even if every other nation on earth is false. But suppose at some future time we find our path set by nations with smaller conclen ces and larger howitzers what then: Shall we defend ourselves with mam moth rolls of Sunday school signature; or shall we place our dependence ii Chautauqua lectures9 "Pending that day, 1 should llk a few more dogs of war and I prom ise not to 'sic' them onto the passers by T cau dream of a day when so Clety will be so well organized tha there will be no more burglars." oo |
