Another quotation from the same article by Representative Hay will give the facts that show the impracticability of the plan for increasing the standing army:
"But, in order to make more evident what Congress has given to the army and the consequent results that must have been obtained therefrom, let me call attention to the fact that during the last ten years the appropriations for the support of the military establishments of this country have amounted to the grand total of $1,007,410,270.48, almost as much as is required to pay all the other expenses of the government, all the salaries, all the executive machinery, all the judiciary, everything, for an entire year.
"Thus, during this period, the army appropriations have annually been from $70,000,000 to $101,000,000; the Military Academy appropriations, from $673,000 to $2,500,000 a year; for fortifications, from $4,000,000 to $9,300,000; for armories and arsenals, from $330,000 to $860,000; for military posts, from $320,000 to $4,380,000; by deficiency acts, military establishment, from $657,000 to $5,300,000; and for Pacific railroads transportation and the enlisted men's deposit fund, a total for the ten years of $11,999,271.
"The totals for the ten fiscal years 1905 to 1915 have been as follows:
| Permanent appropriations (including Pacific railroads transportation and enlisted men's deposit fund) | $11,999,271.00 |
| Fortification acts, armories and arsenals, and military posts in sundry civil acts, and deficiencies for military establishments in deficiency acts | 113,071,133.17 |
| Army appropriation acts | 868,536,993.31 |
| Military Academy acts | 13,802,873.00 |
| —————— | |
| Total | $1,007,410,270.48 |
"However, in spite of this showing of the great expense of maintaining a small army, the Militarists keep up their clamor—particularly at such a time as this, and again whenever a military appropriation bill is up for consideration in the House—that this country be saddled with a great standing army. There is not the slightest need of such an establishment. But, if there were some slight indication of trouble with a fully equipped great power, would the people of this country be ready to embark on a policy that would mean the permanent maintenance of a regular standing army of 500,000 men? It would cost this country, at a conservative estimate, $600,000,000 a year to go through with such an undertaking."
Now after fully weighing that situation in the mind, as set forth by Representative Hay, put beside it the following facts as given by Homer Lea, in "The Valor of Ignorance":
"European nations in time of peace maintain armies from three hundred and fifty thousand to five hundred thousand men and officers, together with reserves of regulars varying from two to five million, with a proportionate number of horses and guns, for the same money that the United States is obliged to expend to maintain fifty thousand troops with no reserve of regulars.
"Japan could support a standing peace army exceeding one million men for the same amount of money this Republic now spends on fifty thousand.
"This proportion, which exists in time of peace, becomes even more excessive in time of war; for whenever war involves a country there exists in all preparation an extravagance that is also proportionate to the wealth of the nation.