Our policy of national defense is not one of making war, but of insuring
peace. The land and sea force of America, both in its domestic and foreign
implications, is distinctly a peace force. It is an arm of the police power
to guarantee order and the execution of the law at home and security to our
citizens abroad. No self-respecting nation would neglect to provide an army
and navy proportionate to its population, the extent of its territory, and
the dignity of the place which it occupies in the world. When it is
considered that no navy in the world, with one exception, approaches ours
and none surpasses it, that our Regular Army of about 115,000 men is the
equal of any other like number of troops, that our entire permanent and
reserve land and sea force trained and training consists of a personnel of
about 610,000, and that our annual appropriations are about $680,000,000 a
year, expended under the direction of an exceedingly competent staff, it
can not be said that our country is neglecting its national defense. It is
true that a cult of disparagement exists, but that candid examination made
by the Congress through its various committees has always reassured the
country and demonstrated that it is maintaining the most adequate defensive
forces in these present years that it has ever supported in time of peace.
This general policy should be kept in effect. Here and there temporary
changes may be made in personnel to meet requirements in other directions.
Attention should be given to submarines, cruisers, and air forces.
Particular points may need strengthening, but as a whole our military power
is sufficient.
The one weak place in the whole line is our still stupendous war debt. In
any modern campaign the dollars are the shock troops. With a depleted
treasury in the rear, no army can maintain itself in the field. A country
loaded with debt is a country devoid of the first line of defense. Economy
is the handmaid of preparedness. If we wish to be able to defend ourselves
to the full extent of our power in the future, we shall discharge as soon
as possible the financial burden of the last war. Otherwise we would face a
crisis with a part of our capital resources already expended.
The amount and kind of our military equipment is preeminently a question
for the decision of the Congress, after giving due consideration to the
advice of military experts and the available public revenue. Nothing is
more laudable than the cooperation of the agricultural and industrial
resources of the country for the purpose of supplying the needs of national
defense. In time of peril the people employed in these interests
volunteered in a most self-sacrificing way, often at the nominal charge of
a dollar a year. But the Army and Navy are not supported for the benefit of
supply concerns; supply concerns are supported for the benefit of the Army
and Navy. The distribution of orders on what is needed from different
concerns for the purpose of keeping up equipment and organization is
perfectly justified, but any attempt to prevail upon the Government to
purchase beyond its needs ought not to be tolerated. It is eminently fair
that those who deal with the Government should do so at a reasonable
profit. However, public money is expended not that some one may profit by
it, but in order to serve a public purpose.
While our policy of national defense will proceed in order that we may be
independent and self-sufficient, I am opposed to engaging in any attempt at
competitive armaments. No matter how much or how little some other country
may feel constrained to provide, we can well afford to set the example, not
of being dictated to by others, but of adopting our own standards. We are
strong enough to pursue that method, which will be a most wholesome model
for the rest of the world. We are eminently peaceful, but we are by no
means weak. While we submit our differences with others, not to the
adjudication of force, but of reason, it is not because we are unable to
defend our rights. While we are doing our best to eliminate all resort to
war for the purpose of settling disputes, we can not but remember that the
peace we now enjoy had to be won by the sword and that if the rights of our
country are to be defended we can not rely for that purpose upon anyone but
ourselves. We can not shirk the responsibility, which is the first
requisite of all government, of preserving its own integrity and
maintaining the rights of its own citizens. It is only in accordance with
these principles that we can establish any lasting foundations for an
honorable and permanent peace.
It is for these reasons that our country, like any other country, proposes
to provide itself with an army and navy supported by a merchant marine. Yet
these are not for competition with any other power. For years we have
besought nations to disarm. We have recently expressed our willingness at
Geneva to enter into treaties for the limitation of all types of warships
according to the ratio adopted at the Washington Conference. This offer is
still pending. While we are and shall continue to be armed it is not as a
menace, but rather a common assurance of tranquility to all the peaceloving
people of the world. For us to do any less would be to disregard our
obligations, evade our responsibilities, and jeopardize our national honor.