UNIVERSITY GRADUATES EDIT "AMERICAN DEFENSE"

The American Defense Society has issued the first number of its new publication. "American Defense." The prime movers in this undertaking are University graduates, C. S. Thompson '87 being the founder, and P. J. Roosevelt '13 the editor-in-chief. Other editors and contributors are G. von L. Meyer '79, former secretary of the navy, R. W. Child '03, C. Stetson LL.B. '03, and Owen Wister '82. The magazine has for its object the spreading of the preparedness propaganda over the entire country.

This first issue contains the following articles: "America's History of Unpreparedness," by G. von L. Meyer '79; "The Navy We Have Not," by C. Stetson LL.B. '03; "Our Secretary of the Navy," by C. S. Thompson '87; "Our Army's Needs," by Major-General W. W. Wotherspoon; "Aerial Defence of the United States," by H. A. W. Wood; and "An Awakening Pacifist," by Hamlin Garland.

In his article on "America's History of Unpreparedness," ex-Secretary Meyer writes in part as follows:

"The investigation of our national defence and a comprehensive plan for the future should be an obligatory matter when Congress meets, for the navy belongs to the people of the country, and they have a right to know its condition and how it is being managed. The mere appropriation of a vast sum of money will not cause the necessary reorganization in order that actual conditions may be improved; in order that we may have a needed change in the way of military reform, which should be forced upon Congress by a widespread sentiment. This investigation and knowledge has been denied to the people by the leaders of the party in power; and it is deplorable that there should be an attempt to deceive the people in a matter of such vital importance.

"We have reached a period in the world's history when it must be recognized that if we are to maintain peace we must be prepared to defend ourselves. Let us not forget that as the nation is, so are its governments, its public service, its army and its navy."

In discussing the needs of the army, Major-General Wotherspoon says:

"Careful consideration of our needs would indicate the advisability and necessity for having at all times available at home and, in addition to the necessities in our foreign possessions, in the first line of our military establishment a mobile force of at least 500,00 thoroughly trained and thoroughly equipped fighting men, with adequate supplies for the operation of this force for a period of at least six months.

"... That an effective defence against an enterprising enemy in the Philippines could be made with a deficiency of 33 per cent of the manning details of the coast defences of Manila and Subig Bay and with a mobile force of a little over 7,000 American troops, supplemented by less than 6,000 Philippine Scouts, is manifestly impossible; that the great water-way of the Panama Canal cannot be protected against the operations of a first-class military power by the present or proposed garrison we contemplate placing there without the power and ability to reinforce it rapidly by troops from the United, States, is equally manifest; that we can retain our valuable Territory of Alaska in its isolated position against an enemy with any military power by placing there a garrison of less than 500 men verges on the ridiculous, unless we have ample forces at home to occupy that territory in the very earliest stages of an impending conflict. As regards the Hawaiian Islands, all military persons will recognize that the proposed garrison in this possession is far below what it should be to meet a serious attack unless, in this case again, we have an adequate force on the Pacific coast ready to dispatch to the island when trouble is impending."