"This proportion, which exists in time of peace, becomes even more excessive in time of war; for whenever war involves a country there exists in all preparation an extravagance that is also proportionate to the wealth of the nation. "_During the last few years of peace, from 1901 to 1907, the United States Government has expended on the army and navy over fourteen hundred million dollars: a sum exceeding the combined cost to Japan of the Chinese War and the Russian War, as well as the entire maintenance of her forces during the intervening years of peace._" And again, the same author says: "A vast population and great numbers of civilian marksmen can be counted as assets in the combative potentiality of a nation as are coal and iron ore in the depths of its mountains, but they are, _per se_, worthless until put to effective use. This Republic, drunk only with the vanity of its resources, will not differentiate between them and actual power. "_Japan, with infinitely less resources, is militarily forty times more powerful._ "Germany, France, or Japan can each mobilize in _one month_ more troops, scientifically trained by educated officers, than this Republic could gather together in _three years_. In the Franco-Prussian War, Germany mobilized in the field, ready for battle, over half a million soldiers, more than one hundred and fifty thousand horses and twelve hundred pieces of artillery in _five days_. The United States could not mobilize for active service a similar force in _three years_. A modern war will seldom endure longer than this. "Not only has this nation no army, but it has no military _system_." We have in the United States a military establishment adequate to suppressing riots, controlling mobs, preventing local anarchy, and protecting property from destruction by internal disturbance or uprisings in our own country. As a national police force, our army is an entirely adequate and satisfactory organization. But policing a mining camp and fighting an invading army, are two widely different propositions. So would fighting a Japanese army be from fighting a few Spaniards or Filipinos. When it comes to a "military system" adapted to the needs of a foreign war with a first-class nation, we have none; and thus far none has been proposed. A system that depends on creating the machinery for national defense by any plan to be undertaken _after hostilities have begun_, is no system at all, and cannot be classed as a system for national defense. It is a system for national delusion. A Volunteer Army belongs in this class, and so in fact does the State Militia. The question of national defense involves two separate and distinct problems: First, the defense of the nation against invasion by another nation.