MILITARISM RUNS MAD

...If this is not militarism run mad what could be...

...It will be, many observers think, unless the dread of Russia, which is now sweeping over the country in a most remarkable way, should affect the military committee...

...But none of these facts as to the world situation are being advanced or considered by the proponents of peacetime conscription...

...This unbelief is based on the silly credo: 'there have always been wars and there will always be wars...

...He then dealt a severe blow to the friends of conscription when he stated that they had not "even guessed how much money will be required to put that juggernaut in motion and keep it going, and in what sort of war these draftees will be trained to fight to get the best results...

...Marshall...

...ONLY one of the witnesses for conscription came out in the open and talked about what is called the Russian danger...

...Marshall called for conscription to make unnecessary a large standing Army, saying that with conscription we could have a small regular Army, before the War Department let out what the "small" regular Army is to consist of—500,000 men, which is 175,000 more men than were ever in the Army before...

...No general and no admiral ever had enough men or ships...

...And what will it do to the Treasury staggering under a national debt of not less then $350,000,000,000...

...This is not a mad militaristic nightmare, but a careful compilation based upon the figures given out by the War Department on May 8 and June 8. It is true that the former publication set the annual conscript Army at only 500,000, but when Col...

...It was so little interested in the opinions of those opposed that usually only about 3 members of this large committee were in attendance, even when Norman Thomas made an unusually able speech against it, and Lt...

...They will never be satisfied even if they get the entire program they are now playing for...

...But here are some of the other figures of what the War Department is planning to have: 1. A postwar reserve office force of 400,000...

...Daniels put his finger on the weak spot when he pointed out that no fiscal estimate of the cost of the proposal has been submitted, and that no one has indicated what kind of a war or with whom we are to fight...

...Daniels think will be all-important for the next war...

...And this, I must point out, does not make any allowance for a great separate airforce, an independent branch of our defense forces, which many besides Mr...

...There is no other country that could threaten us...

...WHAT the forces in the Navy, the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard will be we have no means of knowing for the Navy has not yet shown its hand-estimates in Washington run from 500,000 to 2,000,000, with large reserves both of seamen and officers...

...Daniels' testimony and of many other arguments, there is no doubt that this particular committee of Congress will vote in favor of compulsory military training in peacetime...

...It is easy to prove from this that we shall have at least 3,525,000 Americans in uniform for shorter or longer periods every Summer...

...They want conscription and the huge reserve forces so that they may retain in service all the generals and lieutenant-generals and major-generals and brigadier-generals who have fought this war so gallantly and in Europe so successfully...

...Militarism Runs Mad By OSWALD GARRISON VILLARD "THE propaganda for compulsory military service for American youth is based upon 3 false premises," said the veteran Josephus Daniels in testifying on June 11 before the House Committee on Postwar Military Policies...

...Conkling cited that figure he was sharply rebuked by Congressman Wads-worth and another pro-conscription member of the committee on the ground that he was understating the number that the Army is planning to drill annually...

...Said he: "As I read or listen to the pleas to Hitlerize America, I see how the advocates of compulsion tremble...

...So I have figured upon 750,000 conscripts in the above tabulation...

...NEVER before in our history have we so completely bowed down to the military as we have today...

...The brass hats, backed by their committee on permanent military training, composed largely of Wall Street bankers and lawyers, make no definite statements of any kind whatever that they can possibly avoid formulating...

...4. A conscript force in training of 750,000 men...

...The former Secretary of the Navy of World War I days then correctly pointed out that Germany's early victories in this war were made possible "more by early supremacy in the air, and the utilization of mechanized implements of war than by compulsory goose-stepping...

...Indeed, I have already heard of one Congressman who says openly that he had intended to vote against conscription, but that the Russian menace' is now so alarming that he will vote for it...

...No one believes that France will ever desire to attack us, or could do so, or that either Japan or Germany will recover from this struggle in a generation...

...To this must be added at least 700,000 in the regular Navy, Coast Guard and Marines, and the large number of reserve naval and Marine officers recalled for their refresher courses—that number is probably much too low, but with it we have a total of 4,225,000 men in uniform every Summer if the brass hats have their way...

...Who is there left...

...He then proceeded to say that the false premises were first fear, second, cynicism, and third, imperialism...

...DANIELS insisted that we need only a small compact land force for the Army, which, he said, could certainly be recruited by volunteer enlistments if there is adequate pay and promotion from the ranks for the worthy...

...Now does anybody really believe that we can thus militarize the United States and escape the evils of militarism...

...It is estimated that the pay of the conscripts and regulars alone will come to $1,000,000,000 a year...

...6. A National Guard of 400,000 men, 100,000 more than before, which will be, according to Secretary Stim-son, much more efficient than ever...

...Colonel Roscoe S. Conkling, who has recently returned to civil life after having served in both the World Wars, made an excellent statement from a military point of view of the lack of a sound military basis for the program...

...This is made up of 750,-000 conscripts, plus 175,000 trainers...

...Imperialism he defined as the desire that Uncle Sam shall abandon democracy, the right of all men to govern themselves and to "follow the example of the Israelites of old who, tired of God's guidance, wished a king so that they would be like neighbor nations that lived by the sword...

...He said that there was obviously no desire to draft men for the Navy and that aviation will attract more men than there are planes in which to try their wings...

...MR...

...If the Russian problem could be solved, what earthly grounds could there be for demanding that the United States go as far as Adolf Hitler went in Germany in militarizing the United States...

...3. The regular Army of 500,000 men and officers...

...That we shall not have created a tremendous officer class backed up by 400,000 reserve officers, by an ever-growing retired and reserve list...

...Cynicism he defined as "the disbelief in the belief of our civilization to rise out of savagery and so order the affairs of a civilized age as to make war an anachronism...

...This program will give us by far the greatest and most powerful pressure group we have ever seen in the United States, and one asserting that it alone knows what will make for the safety of the country...

...There is no doubt whatever that this is in the minds of most of the "pros" but that they do not dare say so, especially as there is a strong prc-- Russian group in the War Department to which rumor assigns Gen...

...Not China certainly, nor India, nor the South American countries, and there will be only 2 fleets in the world besides our own—the British and the new Russian, with France limping far behind...

...Never have we fought a war in which the military and naval leaders were able to dominate policy as well as the execution of those policies...

...Daniels was, however, true to his old love, the Navy, in that he demanded once more "the most powerful Navy in the world," which is especially interesting at this moment since the editor of the influential London magazine Nineteenth Century and After has just come out for the old-fashioned British platform of a navy large enough to defeat any combination of other navies which may be brought against it...

...2. A reserve force of trained conscripts amounting to 4,000,000...

...How our Allies trust us...

...5. 175,000 non-commissioned and enlisted men to train the 750,000 conscripts who could not be spared from the regular Army if it is to hold down Germany and Japan and, with the Marine Corps, man garrisons, flying fields, and navy yards all over the world...

...Despite the general excellence and sound common sense of Mr...

...Even if England were hostile, she would not think of committing suicide by moving against us when she could not have won the war against Hitler, so many people think, without our tremendous aid...

...Fortunately this House committee may recommend, but the decision as to action must come from the regular House and Senate Military Affairs Committees, and there it looks as if a different verdict would be reached...

...a regular Army of 500,000, a National Guard of 400,000, plus 2 groups of conscripts called back for refresher courses, that is, 1,500,000 men, plus, let us say, 200,000 reserve officers recalled for the maneuvers—a total of 3,525,000 men...

...It was 6 months after Gen...

...And that recalls the saying of Lord Salisbury when Prime Minister of Great Britain that if the Army had its way it would fortify Mars against the Moon...