Our National Defense: The Patriotism of PeaceMaxwell, George Hebard
History
Our National Defense: The Patriotism of Peace
Maxwell, George Hebard
United States -- Defenses
There would not be room left for many Japanese immigrants, and if some of
them did come they would be in such a hopeless minority that no danger
would result from their being here. No condition could then be imagined in
the future that would create a possibility of Japan, even with all the
countless millions of China combined with her, being able to land on the
Pacific Coast an army large enough to stand a moment against a Homecroft
Reserve of a million soldiers from the Colorado River Valley and another
million from the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys.
Whether it would be advisable to establish other Homecroft Reserves in
Oregon and Washington would depend largely on the attitude of mind of the
people of those States. If a few connecting railroad lines were built,
troops could be transported by railroads running north across Southern
California and Nevada to a connection with the railroads running down the
Columbia River to Portland. These railroads would all be east of the
mountains until they connected with the Columbia River Railroad and would
be free from danger of being destroyed by the blowing up of tunnels.
Of course it is a remote contingency that such a thing should ever become
necessary, but if it ever did, the Canadian border could be defended with
troops brought north through Nevada and Utah from the Colorado River Valley
to great concentration camps at Chehalis and Spokane, in Washington, Havre
in Montana, and Williston in North Dakota. As a matter of military
precaution, the necessary connecting links should be built as military
railroads, if nothing else,--such links as from Yuma to Cadiz, Pioche to
Ely, Tonopah to Austin, Indian Springs to Eureka, and from Battle Mountain
or Winnemucca as well as from Cobre on the Central Pacific line north to a
connection with the Oregon Short Line. The ease with which these
connections could be made, and the facility, in that event, with which
troops from the Colorado River Valley could be transported to any point in
North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, or Oregon, as well as their
[Illustration: Map showing Routes of Railway Transportation to
Concentration Centers for Troops of the Reserves for the defense of the
North Pacific Coast and Northern Boundary of the United States: 1, Albany;
2, Chehalis; 3, Spokane; 4, Havre; 5, Williston.]
proximity when at home in the Colorado Valley, to any point where they
might be needed along the Mexican border or in Southern California,
emphasizes the advantages of the Colorado River Valley as a location for
the first great Homecroft Reserve force of 1,000,000 men, supplemented by
another force of an equal number of men in the Sacramento and San Joaquin
Valleys in California. Once that was done, the question of the defense of
the Pacific Coast would be settled for all time, so long as this Homecroft
Reserve force was maintained and kept always in readiness for immediate
service.
CHAPTER XI
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