Page:Frank David Ely -Why defend the nation? Sound Americanism... (1924).pdf/38

34 3. It permits our maintaining a small Regular Army of only 150,000 men in time of peace, while still insuring efficiency of the National Defense. The Regular Army garrisons the over-seas possessions, guards the coast where necessary, and furnishes the overhead for all training of the National Guard and the Organized Reserves.

4. It insures to the Nation the ability to promptly mobilize finance, industry and manpower—the three essential elements of defense.

5. It utilizes the National Guard as a part of the first line of defense, thus making full use of all pre-existent military organization and training.

6. The Organized Reserves, provided as one component of the Army of the United States, serves as an immense reservoir in which, in the event of war, our manpower can be quickly organized and trained for its various tasks as a second line of defense. This is a very great advantage over our position in 1917.

7. The Officers’ Reserve Corps, composed as it is of citizen-soldiers, forms an essential link between the civil and the purely military which will go far toward removing distrust, promoting understanding, imparting confidence, and assuring wide dissemination of the ideals of America and of the needs of National Defense among the youth of the country and all uninformed elements of our population.