tain in the continental United
States a force of coast artillery sufficient to furnish the
necessary manning details for our seacoast defenses, and a mobile
force complete in every detail and adequate in time of war to meet
the first shock of an invasion and sufficient in time of peace to
meet the various demands made upon it for home service, such as
troops for home emergencies or disorders, troops for the necessary
training of the National Militia, also sufficient officers and
noncommissioned officers for duty at schools, colleges, military
training camps and in various other capacities. It must be also
strong enough to provide a strong expeditionary force, such as we
sent to Cuba in 1898, without interfering with its regular duties.

The necessity of building and maintaining an adequate navy, well
balanced, thoroughly equipped and maintained at the highest standard
of efficiency and ready always for immediate service, with necessary
adjuncts afloat and ashore, is also one of the clear lessons of the
war; others are the establishment of ammunition plants at points
sufficiently remote from the seacoast, and so placed as to render
their capture and destruction improbable in case of sudden invasion;
the provision of an adequate reserve corps of 50,000 officers, a
number sufficient for one and one-half million of citizen soldiers;
officers well trained and ready for immediate service; the provision
of adequate supplies and reserve supplies of artillery, arms, and
ammunition of all types for these troops.

We must also build up a system under which officers and men for our
citizen soldiery can be trained with the minimum of interference
with their educational or industrial careers, under conditions which
will permit the accomplishment of their training during the period
of youth, and once this is accomplished will permit their return to
their normal occupations with the minimum of delay.

The lesson which we should draw from the Great War is that nothing
should be left to chance or to the promise of others, or to the
fair-weather relations of to-day; that we should be as well
prepared, and as well organized on land as Switzerland, a nation
without a trace of militarism, and yet so thoroughly prepared and so
thoroughly ready and able to defend herself that to-day her
territory is inviolate, although she is surrounded by warring
nations.

Belgium to-day is an illustration of what may be expected from lack
of adequate p