Evening Star Newspaper, February 23, 1932, Page 13

THE EVENING STAR. -~ WASHINGTON, D. 23, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1932. AOEQUATE DEFENSE PLEAS BROADCAS Reed'and Hale, Speaking in Forum, Point to Shang- hai as Example. Pleas for adequate national prepared- of the critical situation ere made by Senator of Pennsyl Senate Radio Foru nd broadcast by | N Both chairmen ar in the East as indi- 1assed world opinion is not 1 peace and that upon treaties can t its national de- ho followed the Mili- 1 on the program, ized this point in rican Navy be built its of the London vided in his own bill and mittees in both Houses. t of such legislation, he de- needec if the Unlted States is capable of protecting its rights and neutrality. “With a Navy merely equal to that an we could not meet Japan on even terms in . where, in case of war, flities undoubtedly would tor Hale. “So by not v age of our treaty allot- and by allowing our Navy to de- te'we have lost the security af- us_under the Washington and n tréaties and are the more likely ) become involved in difficulties with the other pow It is imperative that ¢ we win back this security by building up to th tio strength permitted us by these treaties.” Navies Are Compared. Both Senators pointed out the present of the two services compared e of foreign powers. If no s are authorized, Senator Hale American Navy at the close of will have but 68 modern ships. der existing programs, 9 modern ships and avy shall, in modern below its treaty al- e, 1al id. compared with t Britain's 85 below ‘her allowance nd with Japan only seven ships below ition is especiallly deplor- when it is considered the based on annual per capita income, less than one-third what Great Britain, France and Italy are spending on their res and less than one-fifth what is spending on her navy. is well for Congress to take all pos- steps to economize during the ex- isting depression, the Naval Affairs chairman said, but he warned that hould not interfere with the efficiency of the two services. It is “in- ble folly and no part of real »my to fail to provide in full meas- the natior defense of our he warned, with the world in its present chaotic condition and with the apparent failure of all treaties to guarantee world peace. . Time Not Ripe to Disarm. Senator Reed likewise warned that “the world has not yet reached such a of idyllic reasonableness as would 'y our complete disarmament,” in nting on the Eastern situation. Sino-Japenese crisis, he declared, idence that international treaties Dot respected. “Evidently this d world isn't wholly reformed just use a lot of solemn statesmen sign oup of treaties,” he warned. e Regular Army, with 132,000 strength, Senator Reed said, is one- than in 1920 and 1921, er the war-time Army had been de- bilized. Despite the smaller popula- of foreign powers, England has an my of 232,000, he said; France has 389,000 and “disarmed” Germany has a standfng army of over 100,000. These figures, he reminded, do not include the h dominions or the trained re- rves' in all countries. A small army, Reed declared, “is as nec ry as a fire department.” 'We once thought that a war in Eu- rope could not touch us, and when it did touch us” he said,” “it found us unprepared. We must not make that mistake again.” Present Army expenditures, Reed ex- only about 6'2 per cent of expenditures. In 1882 Army ralio was more than 10 per cent. One of the est activities of the I mind, is its wholly patriotic in- te military pre- bers of the Legion , and they do not one. k at w want to see agother Text of Address. tor Reed's address follows on began the experi- as taught that an army in every na- e of internal ulse of external ene- e people regret that 1 . just as they regret that or & police force of men of some size is necessai ntena h no armies i exist, but I believe jority of our people is world has not yet reached { idyllic reasonableness te disarm- ubts it has we find grips, al- ‘e members of are mem- both have the Kel- x signed r treaty of 1932, which tories to respect the ter- China, Evidently wicked world isn't wholly reformed t because a lot of solemn statesmen fes. not whether we 1 army, but how much of hall have. And for a I ant to discuss in by saying the the Lea ugh both of e of N World nerica. is far would be. \ ope. s to listen to fig- ¥ to give just as few as pos- t won't you please take your 8 d a very few yolr news- paper or on tie back of some old en- velope. figures that 1 am about to give come from the American Army General Staff and you can safely de- pend on their accuracy. Gives Army Figures. Our Reuglar Army consists today of 132,000 persons. That is one-third smaller than it was in 1920 and 1921, although by that time the war-time Army had been demobilized. In other words, during the decade of peace we have gone on reducing the size of the Army, and-I think we have gone every bit as far as it is safe to go. Let us compare it with some others. The British, with about one-third our population, have an army of 232,000, to say nothing of the forces of the various dominions. The French, with a popula- tion sbout cne-third the size of ours, oy, bave & army of 389,000, so | Senators Frederick Hale (left) and | the National Radio Forum. Urge Preparedness in Forum David A. Reed, who spoke last night in —Star Staff Photo.| nothing of their trained reserves and the forces of their dependencies. The Italians have a population and & stand- ing army slightly larger than the French. Even the Germans, who_are | supposed to be disarmed by the Ver- sailles treaty, who have a population about half as big as ours, have a stand- ing army over 100,000, as compared to our 132,000. Surely no sane person can call us’miitaristic it he knows those ac Let us state it in another way that makes it even more vivid. In America one person out of every 900 is in our standing Army, in Germany—“dis- armed” as she is—one person in 600, in Great Britain one person in 200, in France and Italy one person out of 105, in Japan one person in 300, in Russia one out of 250, Praises Army Efficiency. And I want to say here that the Army, although smaller, was never more efficient in peacetime than it is now; I am proud to testify to its quality and its thorough effectiveness. I wish only that it were somewhat larger. But, says someone, we are very hard up these days, and we can't afford to keep even an Army so small as ours is. I grant you that we're hard up, and that it's vital that we get our budget balanced as soon as possible. But I beg you to believe that we're bending every effort to run that Army on the very minimum of expense. I am sure that you will be surprised to know that we are spending on the Army these days a smaller percentage of the National Gov- ernment's outlay than at any time in half a century. For instance, in 1882 more than 10 per cent of all that the Federal Government spent was spent on the Army. Twenty-five years later, in 1907, we were spending about 12 per cent of our total outlay on our Army. But now, altMough the quality of our Army is immensely improved, and al- though the pay of both officers and men is much higher, our Army expenditures are only about 62 per cent of the total expenditures of the Federal Govern- ment. It has been possible to reduce our Army expenditures to this level because of the policy we have followed in our colonial administration, in substituting civilian government for military govern- ment as rapidly as circumstances per- mit, and because, back of the standing Army, we have the skeleton of a Na- tional Army, built up through the Na- tional Guard, the Reserve Corps and the citizens’ training camps, which un- der modern conditions must remain the chief reliance of democracies in time of war. If it were not for this whole- some system of civilian training, the cost of which is relatively small-as com- pared with our total military expendi- tures, it would be necessary to maintain a much larger Regular Army as & pre- caution against attack, Believes All Want Peace. We all hope that the United Btates never again will be called upon to go to war with another nation. We all have, I am sure, a sincere desire for peace. Yet no one with even & su- perficial knowledge of history, or with an understanding of human nature, or who has watched the course of events in recent years, can be certain that it will not be necessary. The ideas and necessities of men differ. Racial rivalries persist in spite of everything we can do or say. And s0 long as men can hurl a stone or 1ift a club they will fight if there is a will or a need to fight. Wars were fought before the world knew of artillery or airplanes. They were fought when the only weapons were made of wood or stone. They have continued ever since and we have seen that they cannot be prevented by treaties or agreements. And so I say that an army—a small army—is as necessary as a fire depart- ment. Would you disband your fire de- partment while a fire spread and sparks were flying everywhere? Would you reduce your Army at a time like this, when no man can say that the war in Asia will not spread farther? We once thought that a war in Europe could not touch us, and when it did touch us it found us unprepared. We must not make that mistake again Defends Use of Gas. There is one fallacy against which that is the idea that some people have that war can be prevented, or at least ameliorated, by abolishing particular weapons. hus, for example, we see efforts made by well meaning people to abolish the use of gas in warfare. The plain truth is that gas is the most humane weapon that we have, because a smaller percentage of gas casualties die than of any other sort of casualty that we have. The bayonet, or the bullet, or the shell, are far more deadly than the gases now in use in any army. we could abolish every firearm, large and small, we still would not have im- proved the situation. Probably no more dreadful battles have been foug‘n"l in history than those fought by the Roman Legions, armed only with huge swords and_spears. What an object lesson China is giv- ing us today! How much she needs an effective air force and an effective ! Without the firing of a single water and of the air, quence China’s Jand armies are fighting under a frightful handicap. She is discovering that the cost of defeat is far greater than the cost of prepared- ness. ‘The probability is that China would not be forced to fight today if she had made adequate preparation in advance. No one in this land can so ardently ire peace as those who have experi- ced war in the service of their coun- try, and I know that I speak for the American Legion as a whole when I say that we want preparedness not in order to have war, but in order to pre- Eé;:e“’fhnncy. Other nations will not seek war against a prepared America. Our Army exists not for offense, but for our protection. Unless we are to place ourselves 85 & Nation at the mercy of every country that covets our wealth, our land, our trade, our climate or our civilization, we must be pre- pared to defend it. Senator Hale’s Address. The text of Senator Hale's address follows: This is the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Washington. No one ror gove the country better counsel than did Washington in his farewell address. Among other things he sald, in speaking of the public credit: “One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of _expense Deace, I want to protest very earnestly, gnd | Suppose for the sake of fllustration that | her adversary has control of the | and in_conse- | No one seeks a fist fight with | | timely aisbursements, to prepare for | danger, frequently prevent much great- | er disbursements to repel it.” | | At this particular crisis in world af- fairs, when civilization as we know it is faced with the possibility of utter ruin, we are not making the timely dis- | bursements which might well prevent | our being involved in that ruin should | ruin unfortunately come. | Our Navy, the natural and proven | bulwark of ‘cur country against outside | tncursion, is being gradually weakened by treaty limitations which we do 1 build up to, and allowed to deteri and decay through unwilling our part to replace our ships those ships become obsolete. The purpose of the two disarma- | | ment treaties, the Washington and London treaties, was not slone to Te- | duce naval expenditures, but to make war less probable between the nat taking part. Certain ratios were es- tablished between Great Britain, Japan | and the United States, which, if lived up to, would make a war between any | two of the countries an uncertain and | | hazardous _enterprise. Yet we. the | | richest and most envied nation in the | world, have not kept up our Navy to | | the strength allotted us, while the oth- | ers to a very considerable extent have | | done so. Navy Declared Inadequate. | when As a result, we find ourselves with & | Navy at the’ present time more than half of whose ships are obsolete. Our Navy is not nearly the equal of the | British Navy, and instead of being kept up to a ratio of 5 to 3%, with Japan, | | as permitted by treaties, is, as far as | immediate availability of ships is - cerned, on a footing of practical equal- ity with that country. With a Navy merely equal to that of Japan we could not meet Japan on anything approach- ing equal terms in eastern waters, | where, in case of war, the seat of hos- | tilities would undoubtedly be. So by not taking advantage of our treaty al- lotments and by allowing our Navy to deteriorate we have lost the security afforded us under the Washington and London treaties and are the more likely | to become involved in difficulties with the other powers. It is imperative that we win back this security by building up to the ratio strength permitted us by these treaties. As matters now stand the naval sit- uation is as follows: We have not been | for the last 10 years and are not now | proposing to appropriate a sufficient amount of money per ysar to keep up, | through replacement of obsolete ships, | even so incomplete a Navy as we now | have, nor are we taking any new steps | to build our Navy up to the strength | allotted us under the Washington and | London treaties. If no new ships are authorized and built before the expiration of the Lon- don treaty, at the close of the year 1936, we shall at that time have but 68 modern ships in our Navy. Great Britain, under existing programs al- ready appropriated for, will have 119 modern ships and Japan will have 156 | modern shilps. ‘We shall, in modern ships, be 132 | ships below our treaty allowance, Great | Britain 85 below her allowance and Japen only 7 ships below her allow- ance—a very miserable showing ours | for the richest country in the world, | and especially deplorable when it is considered that we are spending per capita, based on our annual per capita income, less than one-third what Great, | Britain, France and Italy are spending | on their navies and less than one-fifth | what Japan is spending on her navy, Large Property Value to Protect. ‘With a far greater property value to protect than any of these countries, we | are begrudging to the Army and Navy | the support which will enable them in case of war to guarantee our security and continued existence as a Nation. Such was the natural hatred of war engendered by the experience of the world in the World War, with its evil consequences, that an .almost: united worid has bent its efforts toward mak- ing war impossible for the future. Every decent man and woman would like to see such a _consummation brought about, and to bring it about peace treaties have been negotiated and agreements have been entered into limiting certain forms of armament. | The net result is that as far as writ- ten agreements are concerned the | world is to a considerable extent guar- anteed against war, but as far as the actual stopping of war is concerned, | we seem to be as far from our goal as ac were at the conclusion of the World | war. | ‘The situation in the East, I think, conclusively shows that massed world | opinion will not operate to maintain world peace, and that no nation rely- ing upon treaties can safely afford to | neglect its national defense. |~ The whole pacifist argument for dis- armament depends upon the practical and effective restraint imposed by treaties. If treaties can mno longer be relied upon and if against world opin- lon any one country can take such in- dependent action as it sees fit, there is no longer any security in the written | word and anything but proportionate | disarmament, instead of becoming & | panacea for war, becomes an encourage- ment to war. | Pacifist Tdea Declared Wrong. The pacifist argument that if we do not keep up our Navy other nations will follow our example has been proven to be without foundation by what has hap- | pened in the world since the signing of the Washington treaty. While we have let our Navy run down, all of the |ing all candidates. Italy, have materially added to .fl;ledir navies, so that our ratio of naval strength compared to theirs has steadily me down. g(]'The time will come when this feeble naval policy of ours will be bitter! regretted by the people of our countr; and the small temporary savings th: We shall have made on our naval estab- lishment will be rapidly wiped out should we be drawn into a war that might well have been averted had we been properly prepared. Toward the close of the World War, when we had half the civilized world as our allles, we were spending as much money to CAITY on the war in one month as it would take to build up an entirely new full treaty Navy No one can predict the future. Ap- parently wars are still likely to occur. 1f other countries go to war, we should be strong enough ourselves to keep from becoming involved. So strong that no country itself at war would dare to tc our neutrality and make of us antagonist. Should others make n us, none can foretell the align- that might take place. We might have to fight alone against the country WarTing upon us. We might have allles, as we had in the | world War, or we might find ourselves called upon to fight alone and depend entirely on OUT OWn Tesources against a combination of nations. In any event, whatever form the war might take we would be infinitely bet- | ter off if prepared at the commence- ment of hostilities than if forced to prolong the war until an adequate naval force could be built up. Warships are not built overnight. It is a very easy matter to beat swords into plowshares, but it is & long and weary task to beat plowshares back into swords. Unpreparedness Held False Economy. In these difficult times of depression, the Congress is taking and should take all the possible steps to economize. All ordinary expenses of the Government should be cut to the bone, and this should apply as well to expenditures for the Army and the Navy, provided the cut does not interfere with ti efficiency of the two services, but wi the world in its present chaotic condi- tion, and with the apparent failure of all treaties to guarantee world peace, it is inconceivable folly and no part of real economy to fail to provide in full measure for the national defense of our country. Legislation "has been introduced in both houses of Congress authorizing the Prestdent to build our Navy up to the full strength of the London treaty. H. R. 8230, the “Vinson” bill, is before the Committee on Naval Affairs of the House of Representatives, and S. 51, my own bill, is before the Committee on Naval Affairs of the Senate. The bills differ somewhat in their scope, but both authorize the building up of the Navy to the full limits of the London treaty. These bills have the ~whole-hearted support of the vig an | American Legion and of many other patriotic societies. If other patriotic men and women, who believe in pre- paredness and who think that we should maintain a Navy that is capa- ble of protecting our country, our rights and our neutrality, will give their active support to this legislation, and will see that their Senators and Representatives in Congress are ap- prised of their wishes, it will help us greatly to secure a Navy that will ade- quately safeguard our country. — SMITH TO CONSENT TO SUPPORT PLEDGES Former Governor Expected to Is- sue Statement Regarding Mas- sachusetts Delegates. By the Associated Press. NEW YORK, February 23.—The Times says former Gov. Alfred E. Smith has decided to give formal consent to his supporters In Massachusetts to pledge themselves to him as candidates for delegates to the Democratic Nation- al Convention. An announcement to this effeet is expected this week. Under the Massachusetts election law, Mr. Smith is required to give his written consent to each candidate for delegate who wishes to run as pledged to him, or he may file a blanket con- sent with the secretary of State cover- It is expected he will follow the Iatter course. It is virtually certain that Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt will flle a similar consent. and a battle for delegates between Smith and Roosevelt forces will be seen there. Friends of Roosevelt were described as conceding that Smith is likely to win a majority of Massachusetts’ 36 dele- gates, but they feel certain at least six or eight Roosevelt delegates can be elected. B NEW SERVICE Faster, Finer More Frequent Recent additions in schedules .there are now 5 daily to Roan- oke, Knoxville and other Shenan- doak Valley points, and southern and westerly and improve- ments in equipment cut travel time...add new convenience and comfort to trips by Atlantic Grey= hound Lines. 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