VOLUME XXXI

NUMBER 3

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OT since Lincoln's time has a President of the United States been confronted with the making of so much history as has Woodrow Wilson. He was elected to change the course in which the Nation had steered its domestic economy for fifty years. With that task he inherited problems in Mexico and in the Caribbean from which he has evolved a more specific and a definitely disinterested Monroe Doctrine. And the lessons of the European war have burned into the consciousness of the American people the necessity of a preparation for defending ourselves and our ideals that has never before existed in this country.

The President is confronted with the task of formulating a programme to meet that necessity; to instil a vigorous Americanism into all our people and to silence and rid us of the voices of treason which have risen among us; to increase the Navy rapidly so that it will suffice for our needs; to create a trained citizen army capable of defending the country-an entirely new thing in our history; and to organize a relation between the Government and private industry that will enable us to mobilize, transport, feed, supply, and refit our Army and Navy instantly and perfectly also a new thing in American history.

The President has asked Congress to pass laws to enable the Government to do all these things.

Every citizen of the United States who has the welfare of this country at heart should do all in his power to see that Congress passes a programme that will set firm in statute and in fact our desire to be a nation with a single national sentiment, an honest and disinterested zeal for democracy and the welfare of our neighbors, and a willingness and ability to defend ourselves, our rights, and our ideals from encroachments either from within or without.

Our heart is clean of the lust of conquest and oppression. Let us match the decency of our ideals with a vigor and unity in their consummation. This is a task not alone for the President and Congress; they are the instruments through which the Nation works. It is the duty of every citizen; and now is the time for us to define who and what we are, for every one of us to do everything that lies in him to make the Government set us down in history aright.

What the present Congress does will serve as a measure for foreign nations of the intelligence and ability which we have as a nation to meet a situation that comes plainly before us; and it will also show us to ourselves.

SIDE from the main programme for national preparedness and the raising of money therefor, and for laws to deal with treason, the President made several other recommendations in his message to Congress:

1. The passage of a shipping bill.

2. The passage of laws increasing selfgovernment in the Philippines and in Porto Rico.

3. The passage of bills granting federal aid to industrial and vocational education.

4. The passage of rural credit legislation. 5. An investigation of the transportation conditions in the country.

The President is voicing a very widespread popular feeling when he demands that the American merchant marine be revived. There is little difference of opinion upon this. The differences of opinion arise over how it shall be done. In the last Congress these differences killed these differences killed Secretary McAdoo's ship purchase plan. The main difficulty of the situation is that in normal times American shipping has been unable to compete with foreign shipping. There are but two ways of overcoming this difficulty: either the Government must run the ships itself, presumably at a loss, or it must subsidize private individuals to do it. As a nation. our experience with the Government in industry is not encouraging, nor have we ever been able to give subsidies or even tariff protection to private industries without discrimination if not corruption. Whatever shipping bill is passed, and some bill seems likely of passage, will contain the evils of one or the other or both of these expedients Government industry or subsidy. The President recommends that the Government's aid, in whatever form it takes, be continued only while the shipping industry is in its infancy and that any artificial restraints which now hamper our shipping be removed. Both of these recommendations, if carried out, would tend to reduce the seemingly necessary evils attendant upon the re-creation of our merchant marine.

The enlargement of the privileges of self-government in the Philippines is a

platform, but beyond the fact that it is an effort to fulfil a pledge it has not much to recommend it. Secretary Garrison's very able demolition of Mr. Taft's attack upon the present Administration in the Islands is likely to gain adherents for the Administration's proposals, but it has in fact little to do with the Filipinos' ability for increased self-government at present.

The granting of federal aid to industrial and vocational education is much needed. and it is as proper a function for the Government as the aid it has long extended to agricultural education. Education is one of the fundamental duties of a democracy. and our experience has proved that the Government can give money to teach its citizens without favoritism or scandal.

When the Federal Reserve Act was passed it should normally have been fol lowed by an act to facilitate rural credit. In all likelihood this would have happened except that certain members of Congress. in their zeal to help the farmer, endeavored to pass a bill to institute a rural financial charity. This bill was killed, but it had lived long enough to block proper rural credit legislation. The American farmer does not need financial charity from the Government. He does want and should have established a rural banking machinery that will take from him his various mortgages, consolidate them into salable form, and find a public market for them. There are a number of mortgage bankers who do this very successfully now, but their activities are limited. The Government can supply a more extensive system.

The President recommends an investigation of the transportation problem in the country in the hope of bettering the conditions under which the railroads labor. for "it is obviously a problem that lies at the very foundation of our efficiency as a people."

"Our efficiency as a people!" It is the keynote of the entire programme. With the exception of the Philippines laws, every recommendation in the message is directed toward increasing our efficiency as a people.

The last paragraph of the President's message reads:

For what we are seeking now, what in my ind is the single thought of this message is itional efficiency and security. We serve a eat nation. We should serve it in the spirit its peculiar genius. It is the genius of comion men for self-government, industry, justice, berty, and peace. We should see to it that it cks no instrument, no facility or vigor of law, › make it sufficient to play its part with energy, afety, and assured success. In this we are no artisans, but heralds and prophets of a new age.

OUR CONTINENTAL ARMY

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HERE are three points of view concerning the proposal to put the Army upon a footing of preparedness. Colonel Roosevelt and many other people believe that we should have universal military service. A one-year service with our population would provide an active army of from 750,000 to a million men-with a reserve, after a few years, of two or three times that number. Behind this, in time, would grow up a whole country trained in arms.

Such a military system would practically insure us against attack, for there is no nation that could transport enough troops overseas to have a chance of defeating such an army. The other advantage of universal service is that it brings a concrete realization to the mind of every citizen that citizenship does not consist merely in privileges but that it involves duties as well, one of which is the defense of the country. There is no more reason why this duty should be voluntary and optional than that the duty of paying taxes should be optional.

The disadvantages of universal service are that it takes more men from profitable industry than are strictly necessary for national defense; and for the Government to arm and equip such large forces would be extremely expensive.

Directly opposite to this point of view is that of the pacifists who want no more army but wish to leave the defense of the country to our ability to convince other nations that we have only good intentions and that they, also, ought to have only good intentions.

Between these two extremes is the larger body of the American public that does not

believe universal service is necessary but that does want an adequate army. These people look to the Administration's programme as the solution of their needs. Secretary Garrison's plan provides for a Regular Army of 141,800 men, a force of Continentals of 400,000 men, and a higher standard for the militia than is now maintained. The militia now amounts to about 120,000 men.

Irrespective of any plan for the defense of the Nation against the attack of a first class Power, we need the increase in the Regular Army. The garrisoning of our overseas possessions, (including the Panama Canal), and the manning of our coast fortifications takes so large a part of our present Army that we did not have sufficient men to meet properly the obligations which we narrowly missed having to meet in Mexico. On our present basis we can hardly get together more than one properly equipped and properly proportioned army corps of mobile troops.

If we mean to provide against the exigencies of a possible invasion, we must have at least 400,000 men in the Continental line. Under Secretary Garrison's plan these men will be trained on an average of two months a year for three years. After the men serve their three years they will automatically go into the reserve, so that in the course of time we should have not only 400,000 men in the active Continental Army but at least an equal number in reserve.

Besides the Regulars and the Continentals there will be the militia. At present this force is about 120,000 strong, but its efficiency varies greatly in the different states and not much of it could be considered as immediately available for mod

ern warfare.

The main test of Secretary Garrison's plan is whether the new Continental force will be sufficiently trained and adequate in

numbers.

With two months' training a year for three years the Continental line could not rank in efficiency with the French or German troops. They might, perhaps, equal the improvised British troops, though these troops have had more training than this and had it continuously. On the other