Page:Frank David Ely -Why defend the nation? Sound Americanism... (1924).pdf/37

Rh and from men who have taken the necessary prescribed courses of military instruction offered at the Civilian Military Training Camps, of which there is at present one held each summer in each of the nine corps areas into which the whole of the United States is divided. Thus a flow of trained officers is provided to replace losses due to age, the limitation on time imposed by business or other duties, etc.

Additional manpower over that required above is available for expansion of the First and Second Lines of Defense; for industry, agriculture, transportation, and for all other National Defense needs. The organization now being effected of the country's manpower holds a great advantage over the conditions which existed at the outbreak of war in 1917. The Nation then stood like a giant muscle-bound. Its potential powers in men and industry were untrained and unharnessed for defense, were without even a semblance of the necessary organization, and for a time the Nation stood all but helpless in defense. Very hasty and wholly unsatisfactory methods were of necessity resorted to for the selection and training of officers before the organization of our units for defense could even begin. But for the fact that our allies were holding the common enemy on a distant front, this loss in time and advantage would have spelled complete disaster. As it resulted, it spelled loss and waste in lives and property beyond all reckoning. The National Defense Act of 1920 brought a distinct feeling of relief to America in that for the first time in our whole national existence a real plan for the National Defense was made law, providing for the organization in peace time of our manpower and industry against our need in any future emergency. This Act is an excellent law and if and when wholly carried out and in force will be fair insurance in event of another emergency against any recurrence of the lamentable confusion and waste of 1917.

The following are a few of the excellent features of the Plan for Defense as carried in the National Defense Act of 1920:

1. It employs all the essential resources of the Nation for its defense, rather than only a part.

2. It is the cheapest in cost of all the plans ever considered that will adequately secure our defense.