To preserve internal order and freedom from encroachment is the first
purpose of government. Our Army and Navy are being maintained in a most
efficient state under officers of high intelligence and zeal. The extent
and expansion of their numbers and equipment as at present authorized are
ample for this purpose.
We can well be deeply concerned, however, at the growing expense. From a
total expenditure for national defense purposes in 1914 of $267,000,000, it
naturally rose with the Great War, but receded again to $612,000,000 in
1924, when again it began to rise until during the current fiscal year the
expenditures will reach to over $730,000,000, excluding all civilian
services of those departments. Programs now authorized will carry it to
still larger figures in future years. While the remuneration paid to our
soldiers and sailors is justly at a higher rate than that of any other
country in the world, and while the cost of subsistence is higher, yet the
total of our expenditures is in excess of those of the most highly
militarized nations of the world.
Upon the conference shortly to be held in London will depend such
moderation as we can make in naval expenditure. If we shall be compelled to
undertake the naval construction implied in the Washington arms treaty as
well as other construction which would appear to be necessary if no
international agreement can be completed, we shall be committed during the
next six years to a construction expenditure of upward of $1,200,000,000
besides the necessary further increase in costs for annual upkeep.
After 1914 the various Army contingents necessarily expanded to the end of
the Great War and then receded to the low point in 1924, when expansion
again began. In 1914 the officers and men in our regular forces, both Army
and Navy, were about 164,000, in 1924 there were about 256,000, and in 1929
there were about 250,000. Our citizens' army, however, including the
National Guard and other forms of reserves, increase these totals up to
about 299,000 in 1914, about 672,000 in 1924, and about 728,000 in 1929.
Under the Kellogg pact we have undertaken never to use war as an instrument
of national policy. We have, therefore, undertaken by covenant to use these
equipments solely for defensive purposes. From a defense point of view our
forces should be proportioned to national need and should, therefore, to
some extent be modified by the prospects of peace, which were never
brighter than to-day.
It should be borne in mind that the improvement in the National Guard by
Federal support begun in 1920 has definitely strengthened our national
security by rendering them far more effective than ever heretofore. The
advance of aviation has also greatly increased our effectiveness in
defense. In addition to the very large program of air forces which we are
maintaining in the Army and Navy, there has been an enormous growth of
commercial aviation. This has provided unanticipated reserves in
manufacturing capacity and in industrial and air personnel, which again
adds to our security.
I recommend that Congress give earnest consideration to the possibilities
of prudent action which will give relief from our continuously mounting
expenditures.