anything like a reserve supply of weapons, particularly field guns, ammunition, supplies, hospital trains, and the equipment necessary to efficient operation of other auxiliary arms of the service.

There are two vital aspects of this situation: The first is the safety of the nation; and the second is the unfairness, which in time of war will amount to criminal negligence on our part, in putting such a burden of responsibility as now exists upon men who have voluntarily stepped forward as willing to train themselves for the defense of the nation.

President Taft emphasized the fact that a large body of men does not necessarily constitute an army, and that a volunteer enlisted to-day, or a militiaman enrolled to-morrow, cannot be expected, no matter what his desire may be, to be an effective fighting unit at once.

What has been accomplished in our military history by the soldiers who have made up our forces under the slipshod system which has continued since the Revolution, is the highest tribute to the spirit and valor of the individual

American soldier, whether regular or militia

man.

Our unfairness toward the man who voluntarily assumes his share of the burden of the national defense was emphasized by General Richard Henry Lee, commander of the famous Partisan Legion. Years after the Revolution, Lee said this: "A government is the murderer of its citizens which sends them to the field uninformed and untaught, where they are to meet men of the same age and strength, mechanized by education and discipline for battle."

CHAPTER X

WELL?

WHAT are we going to do about it?

Probably, either we are going to assume that there is no need to do anything about it, or we are going to take the position that, because there is peril in our present state of military preparedness, there is necessity for deciding upon some means of increasing our military strength.

Some of us hold very firmly to the belief that our system in its present application is sufficient for any possible emergency which we might face, and point to the successful and glorious outcome of every armed struggle in which we have been engaged.

Others of us are inclined to the belief that those very conflicts furnish the strongest proof of the unnecessary disasters and needless sacrifices that go with military unreadiness.

Assuming that a first-class nation might de

cide that it would be profitable and advisable to attack us by land, would an immediately available force of 50,000 trained men, plus our patriotism, be adequate for our defense? Evidently such a force, particularly if ill-equipped, poorly organized, and not supplied with sufficient field artillery and ammunition, would be no match against trained troops, perfectly equipped. The element, then, upon which we would rely to give us superiority and ultimate success, would be our patriotism.

It was an inspiring picture which William J. Bryan, as Secretary of State, is quoted as having painted-"The President knows that if this country needed a million men and needed them in a day, the call could go out at sunrise, and the sun would go down on a million men under arms." But it is a picture without historical background. Mr. Bryan, no doubt, in common with the great majority of people unexpert in things military, has had neither the time nor the inclination to study the requirements of military science. Among those of us whose information is of the most general