AMERICA’S PREPAREDNESS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144783, 13 September 1915, Page 5

AMERICA’S PREPAREDNESS.

A FOOL’S PARADISE, ' ‘ The following extracts from an article published in the Scientific American of July 24, might be considered incredible if they were taken from an ordinary journal. They show the “fool’s paradise” in which the American citizens? live. “It takes a long time and extensive machine-plants to manufacture tho mobile artillery of to-day ranging 'as it does from the 3in gun to the huge howitzer now present on the battlefields of' Europe. Not only must guns be built and vast supplies of ammunition provided . . . but men must bo instructed in their use. Are we taking any steps to make these, preparations which no amount of'money, energy, or patriotism can provide except with such delay as would be fatal to the successful conduct of war?. Tho answer is no. Our half filled regiments, our reserve of regulars of six-. teen men, our puny supply of field artillery ammunition, tire partially filled magazines of our scacoast cannon, our. carriages which strip them of forty per cent, of their effective power and open our forts to bombardment by superior naval ordnance without power of reply . . . . ; our navy without reserves of men, without a single battle cruiser, without adequate submarines, either in number, speed, or size, our alarming shortage of field , artillery guns .... . our lack of preparation in the way of aeroplanes in both army and navy, all point to failure to heed the signs of the times and to failure to have made even a reasonable degree of preparation. Anti-enlistment societies and leagues to induce emasculated young men to swear they will not fight add to tho gravity of the situation. It is time—high time —to give heed to the dangerous pass to which ignorance, conceit, an intelligent military policy have brought upon ns .... The puny reserve of the United States in the way of guns and ammunition is insignificant in amount. Tho ammunition reserve reported in our previous publications is little morq than a day’s consumption by a group of allied forces. Representatives of tho fighting countries are beseeching our arms factories and ammunition factories for supplies. Limitless credit stands ready to pay any pried we demand . ... Has the United States been able to meet the demands made upon her ? The answer id most decidedly no ... . Is this because the United States is making demands on private arms plants to fill her own empty arsenals The answer is emphatically no. She stands as she has stood for years—unprepared, unready, apparently unthinking, and without realisation of the greal; danger which has come to her. through Tack of reasonable' preparation. ”