OCR Text |
Show mm favors ' POWERFUL NAVY Veterans' Support Pledged to Harding in Fight for Adequate Fleets NDIANAPOIiIS, April 13. -The proposed reduction of the navy by congress Is "disastrous and a threat to national safely," HanfOrd MacNi-der, MacNi-der, national commander of'thc American Amer-ican legion, said in a telegram to President Pres-ident Harding today, pledging the support sup-port of hi.s organisation to the president presi-dent in his fight for an adequate navy, Influences In congress are trying to make the United States a second rate naval power, Mr. MacNider said. The telegram which the national com-ntander com-ntander dispatched to tho presiden? said: "The safety of our whole country depends fir.-n of all upon tho navy. It Is our first line of national defense m time of war and muht be kept read as an Impregnable bulwark behind which complete national mobilization can be effected Never again .an We hope to prepare behind the fleot of an- I other nation as we did In the worlo war. , "That officers and men must be trained for war in time of peace wai shown in the late war when ve spent the first year of our participation In expanding and training our navy for action due to unreadiness. 1 ' The sense of false security ndan-gered ndan-gered by unmanned ships would bi l.:-tal l.:-tal In the time of stress. The- American Ameri-can legion Is squarely behind tho ad-ininlstrutiem ad-ininlstrutiem ln its stand and believes that when the country at largo awakens awak-ens to the magnitude of this threat ut our national safety It will make Itself rd in language unmistakable,'' the telegram concluded |