First: A standing army large enough for any contingency.
Second: A standing army, reënforced by state militia.
Third: A standing army with a reserve composed of men who have served a term of enlistment in the regular army.
None of these plans could be relied on for national defense in the event of war between the United States and any one of the great world powers. That will be fully demonstrated in the subsequent chapters of this book.
To insure the national safety as against such a contingency, a standing army of over 500,000 men would be necessary. It would cost this country $600,000,000 a year to maintain such a standing army, and the army itself would be a more dangerous menace than a foreign invasion.
The utter worthlessness of state militia as a national defense in the event of war with a first-class power is strongly set forth in the warning by George Washington quoted in a later chapter.
The impracticability of a reserve force like that proposed by the Militarists is clearly shown in the article from which quotations are made in a later chapter by Honorable James Hay, Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs of the House of Representatives in the Congress of the United States.
The situation when analyzed is certainly a most extraordinary one and can only be accounted for on the theory that the people of this country are not informed as to the facts and assume that we must be prepared for war, and able to defend ourselves in case of war, by reason of the stupendous expenditures we have been making for over ten years for the military branch of the government. To the average man it would seem as though $250,000,000 a year ought to be enough to provide for the national defense.
The situation would be different if we had any assurance that the United States would never again be involved in a war. In that event we would need no plans for national defense.