[69] A comparatively small number of modern liners would be enough to aggregate this net tonnage.
[70] Based on foreign army calculations.
[71] Modern artillery is almost invariably concealed. Experienced soldiers would suspect that an infantry regiment hardly would be without at least one battery, and more probably two, of field artillery support.
[72] “Unless provision is made in the near future for additional Coast Artillery personnel, it will be necessary to reduce the garrisons to mere caretaker establishments at some of the defenses.”—E. M. Weaver, Brigadier General, Chief of Coast Artillery, U. S. A., September 19, 1914, Annual Report.
[73] Actual manning detail for New Bedford defenses, 1914, one company regular Coast Artillery.
[74] There is said to be only one firm in the United States that can produce the rifling tools, jigs, gauges and other exact and intricate machinery needed to make a rifle. Consequently, the loss of the Springfield Arsenal would be disastrous.
[75] Official statistics.
[76] Large numbers of guns and large numbers of ammunition are liable to capture and destruction.... To start into field operations with the expectation that the proper proportions will be maintained without large sources of manufacture, would be fallacious.”—Chief of Staff, U. S. A., 1914.—See Report on Militia Organization, 1914, for comments on the great loss and destruction of equipment and material.
[77] Some observers of the European War declare that the reserve of one gun per man has proved itself necessary for the proper equipment of an active army.
[78] “He,” i.e., Secretary Garrison, present Secretary of War, “asks for an increase in the number of officers to take the place, in time of peace, of such officers as are serving with the militia or on detached duty, and in time of war to assist in the organization of the citizens’ army. The necessity of these requests is self-evident. Yet the House of Representatives has completely ignored each and every one of them, and the pending appropriation bill contains no provision for them.”—Henry L. Stimson, former Secretary of War.