The first duty of our Government to its own citizens and foreigners within
its borders is the preservation of order. Unless and until that duty is met
a government is not even eligible for recognition among the family of
nations. The advancement of world civilization likewise is dependent upon
that order among the people of different countries which we term peace. To
insure our citizens against the infringement of their legal rights at home
and abroad, to preserve order, liberty, and peace by making the law
supreme, we have an Army and a Navy.
Both of these are organized for defensive purposes. Our Army could not be
much reduced, but does not need to be increased. Such new housing and
repairs as are necessary are tinder way and the 6-year program in aviation
is being put into effect in both branches of our service.
Our Navy, according to generally accepted standards, is deficient in
cruisers. We have 10 comparatively new vessels, 22 that are old, and 8 to
be built. It is evident that renewals and replacements must be provided.
This matter was thoroughly canvassed at the last session of the Congress
and does not need restatement. The bill before the Senate with the
elimination of the time clause should be passed. We have no intention of
competing with any other country. This building program is for necessary
replacements and to meet our needs for defense.
The cost of national defense is stupendous. It has increased $118,000,000
in the past four years. The estimated expenditure for 1930 is $668,000,000.
While this is made up of many items it is, after all, mostly dependent upon
numbers. Our defensive needs do not can for any increase in the number of
men in the Army or the Navy. We have reached the limit of what we ought to
expend for that purpose.
I wish to repeat again for the benefit of the timid and the suspicious that
this country is neither militaristic nor imperialistic. Many people at home
and abroad, who constantly make this charge, are the same ones who are even
more solicitous to have us extend assistance to foreign countries. When
such assistance is granted, the inevitable result is that we have foreign
interests. For us to refuse the customary support and protection of such
interests would be in derogation of the sovereignty of this Nation. Our
largest foreign interests are in the British Empire, France, and Italy.
Because we are constantly solicitous for those interests, I doubt if anyone
would suppose that those countries feel we harbor toward them any
militaristic or imperialistic design. As for smaller countries, we
certainly do not want any of them. We are more anxious than they are to have
their sovereignty respected. Our entire influence is in behalf of their
independence. Cuba stands as a witness to our adherence to this principle.
The position of this Government relative to the limitation of armaments,
the results already secured, and the developments up to the present time
are so well known to the Congress that they do not require any restatement.