The Myth of the Militia

Before introducing the Guest Speaker, the Chairman announced that Dr. Elias Clouse, one of the founders of the Club, was present at the head table. Dr. Clouse had just celebrated his 87th birthday during this month.

MR. JOHN C. M. MACBETH: Gentlemen of The Empire Club: It is a pleasure, when having guests from far and wide, to have a visit from a neighbour. Today our guest is a neighbour, a next door neighbour, from the City of Buffalo, who, on his last call, some fifteen months ago, talked to us most informatively on the subject, "Men, Money, and Materiel". He came to us then as Captain Roswell P. Rosengren; he comes to us today as Major Roswell P. Rosengren. This advance in rank, we take it, has no relation to or bearing on his subject today, which is "The Myth of the Militia". (Laughter.)

Major Rosengren, although still a young man, has had an unusually outstanding career. A lawyer by practice and profession, he holds degrees from two universities, and, while finding or making time to cultivate many incidental interests, has already channeled a deep course through the ways of commerce. He was successively President of the junior Chamber of Commerce of the City of Buffalo, then of the State of New York, then of the United States of America. That sort of achievement takes real ability. His services in this field of endeavour were so highly regarded that, in 1934, he received the National Distinguished Service Award of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, and, in 1935, he was chosen as one of the ten outstanding men in the United States of America under the age of forty years.

When he came to us last, he was with the Planning and Liaison Branch of the Bureau of Public Relations of the War Department at Washington. Today he comes as the Intelligence Officer in the office of the Chief of Engineers.

Even though his wife was educated at the Ontario Ladies College, and, from her, he might have learned better, I venture to say that the only means by which you will be able to detect that he lives south, instead of north, of the mythical border is that he will say lootenant instead of leftenant and zee instead of zed. Who cares, since both are right!

Gentlemen: Major Roswell P. Rosengren.

MAJOR ROSWELL P. ROSENGREN: Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Guests, Gentlemen, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Radio Audience generally: Fifteen months ago, as your President has said, it was my pleasure to appear before this distinguished organization. At that time the young men of Canada were at the fighting fronts and the United States was at nominal peace with the world.

You may remember, as you have been reminded, that we discussed the progress of the defense effort in the United States in terms of "Men, Money and Materiel". Such indicative statistics as national security permitted were laid before you. Your enthusiastic approbation of the news of that program of construction and production suggests that no more emphasis than a reminder will call it to your mind.

In outlining the evolution of then recent reactions in America, we traced the steps from apathy to concern, from concern to alarm and from alarm to action. I was so bold as to say "Let there be no doubt--it is Hitler who is our enemy and it is Hitlerism that threatens our Democratic security." The events of the intervening months 'have borne out such prognostications as we mutually read between the lines of the facts then recited.

Now we are engaged in a global war, the extent and implications of which are incalculable. In the face of cold steel and under a rain of terror from the skies, we have learned, in the hard school of experience, that only trained and disciplined armies, backed by the production line of mass industry, can successfully defeat the skilled aggressors who oppose us. On December 7 of 1941 we of the United States were blasted out of our lethargy, and the least interested of us became concerned with preparation for war.

Once more it has been demonstrated that wars are won by trained soldiers led by skilled, experienced officers and not by amateurs. In both of our peaceful nations we have a just pride in the patriotism and the bravery of our soldiers, but we must not forget the dangers of the patriotism of unpreparedness. George Washington was right when he told the Continental Congress that the colonies needed a good army-not a large one. Now we need both.

A generation ago it was said: "I can stamp my foot and a million men will spring to arms overnight". There are still some who persist in this delusion, which we may well call "The Myth of the Militia". Men might desire to spring to arms, but who could tell them they were to go? Who would build them shelter? Who would examine them physically and isolate those with communicable diseases to prevent horrible epidemics? Where would they get any uniforms? An enemy shoots or hangs prisoners captured in civilian clothes. They might try to spring to arms; but the arms would not be there for them to spring to. If each brought a rifle, whence would come the thousand kinds of necessary ammunition? They would have to be divided into units and each unit would need a cook and a kitchen. Soldiers must be paid. They must have doctors and medicines. They must be trained for war.

When one analyzes the magnitude of these necessities in the familiar terms of housing, food, clothing, illness, and pay checks alone, then multiplies the problem by necessities of war and one perceives the inadequacy of the millions of men, one gleans a small idea of the basic militia.

There are many instances in the history of our respective countries to point out our mutual belief that a patriotic militia is a full measure of protection against the aggressive attack of any hostile nation or group of nations. The Saxon forbears of our early colonists, for example, after being led to victory by Harold against the Danes at Stamford Bridge-being undisciplined militia, went home to tell their wives and neighbours of the event. Thus handicapped, Harold had to gather an even less trained rabble to move south to meet the Normans. But the trained might of the forces of William the Conqueror were too much for Harold's green militia and thus England was successfully invaded at a cost of the life of the King and almost all of his followers. Braddock's defeat furthered the illusion that trained soldiery might be expected to fall easily before the irregulars. And it is seldom that we teach that only after the formation and careful training of the 60th Royal Americans (now that most distinguished regiment, the King's Royal Rifle Corps) was Braddock's defeat avenged and the pioneers of the westerly colonies made safe.

Of course it is only human to glory in the history of our own country. This human trait makes it difficult to learn objectively from our own mistakes. Therefore, let us examine the experiences of others in order to reach unbiased conclusions. The truth is that small, good armies have always defeated big, bad ones.

At Leuctra, nearly 400 years before Christ, 6,000 well-trained Thebans under Epaminondas decisively defeated 10,000 Spartans. He placed his best and most experienced troops on his left wing, a column 50 deep, plus cavalry, with which he crushed one wing of the enemy, where their leader stood. It was this basic movement which Frederick the Great made famous at Leuthen in his "oblique attack" 'by which he defeated 80,000 Austrians with but 30,000 men. This strategy, so popular with the Germans, was recently turned against Marshal Rommel by General Auchinleck, in the defense of Egypt.

Alexander the Great, by superior training and leadership, ended the Persian threat of his day and went on to conquer the then known world. In the decisive battle of Arbella, he crushed the Oriental, polyglot might of Persia, consisting of 1,000,000 infantrymen and 40,000 horsemen. His 40,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry inflicted a loss of 300,000 upon the Persians, while suffering casualties of only 100 men and 1,000 horses themselves.

The establishment of the Macedonian Empire by Alexander produced the civilization of the great Hellenistic Age centred at Alexandria, which reached significant heights in scientific and literary activity as well as commerce and prosperity. Similarly, the hundred years of the Golden Age of Pericles had followed the wars in which the Greeks under Miltiades had defeated the Persians at the Battle of Marathon. There 10,000 Athenians defeated 20,000 invading Persians by initiating the great Military Plan made famous by Hannibal at Cannae. It was the same double envelopment the Germans used in 1914, and a chief modern tactical plan. Thus we inherited the art, architecture, philosophy, oratory, sculpture, and drama of Greece, as the direct result of a united people who enjoyed the advantages of military training, and were willing to fight to preserve their way of life.

The foundations of the Roman Empire were laid by Julius Caesar. The Empire he founded ruled the most protracted period of peaceful civilization and commerce in the history of the world. In addition, it laid the foundation for all of the modern European nations including England, France and Germany. It is interesting to note that the training and discipline of the Roman Legions preserved the Empire for centuries, even after the whole army became barbarian. And to date, more millions have been slain by the double-edged Roman thrusting sword than by any other weapon. When the Roman citizens deserted the military for civil pursuits, and became degenerated and disintegrated from soft, luxurious and licentious living, the barbarians took over the territory and made slaves of the effeminate people.

At the Battle of Crecy 19,000 well-trained and well-led English longbowmen won a decisive victory over 60,000 armed, but poorly-organized French knights, took a toll of 30,000 French, spelling the end of the age of chivalry, and costing but 50 English lives.

Napoleon's comeback after his retreat from Moscow was almost unbelievable. After forcing a six-weeks truce by means of a newly-raised army, he marched 80,000 men 90 miles to Dresden in three days, where he acquired some 16,000 additional fighting men. With these he struck the 200,000 Russian, Prussian and Austrian allies -using the forerunner of the modern pincers tactics. With a loss of but 10,000 he completely routed the enemy, capturing 23,000 prisoners and inflicting a total loss of 38,000. Honestly we must admit that man is inherently a fighting animal. The basic instinct of self-preservation, in a world which has never filled his wants, has led him to fight for his food his cave and the pelts of beasts to keep him warm. The complexities and developments of civilization have only extended his insatiable desires until the luxury of today became tomorrow's necessity, for which he has always been willing to--and always will--fight!

As the family expanded into the tribe and the tribes grouped together as communities, the boundaries of the land each occupied expanded to the boundaries of similar communities. Further expansion was always at the expense of others. As a result of this conflict of interest the stronger overcame the weaker, enslaved the inhabitants and annexed its territory. Without modification in essence, the same drama is being enacted today all over the world.

Eternal vigilance is indeed the price of liberty. History shows repeatedly that where people fail in this vigilance, strong nations conquer weaker nations by force of arms.

Might has frequently conquered right. To those who pretend to deny it let them review the conquests of the Huns, the Tartars, the Moslems, the Turks, Genghis Khan's Mongolians, Prussia, Napoleon's France, Nazi-Germany and Japan. Let them also review the great civilizations which have thus fallen. Egypt, Greece, Macedonia, Rome, China, Holland, France and Spain.

But let us bring the story down to date. When England refused to "have its neck wrung like a chicken", and won the Battle of Britain in the air; when Soviet Stoicism stopped the Nazi sweep; when the United States won the defensive battles of the Coral Sea, Midway, and the Solomons, and when the Allies secured the African foothold, the issue in the world's most titanic struggle of all time was joined. Mighty powers are now engaged on many fronts in a battle to the death. The Titans are Germany and Japan on the one side, and Russia, Britain, China and the United States on the other.

While Germany and Japan were arming at a furious rate, many of us still believed in the "Myth of the Militia". We refused to prepare for war. We tacitly permitted the occupation of Austria and the dismemberment of Czeckoslovakia. Thus at Munich, Germany accomplished the removal of a wonderful, well-equipped army of Czech patriots and secured the possession of the great Skoda Munitions Works.

Then came Poland and the winter of "Phoney War" during which the Nazis sharpened the "Blitz" against the deadened senses of the Democracies. In the Spring of 1940, down went Denmark and Norway. Dairy products, paper-making material and fish were cut off from Britain, and Sweden's high-grade iron-ore was isolated.

The Maginot Line was pierced, the great French army was defeated, and France fell in a matter of days. The demise of Holland and Belgium had preceded that of France. Then came Dunkirk. With France went 19% of the world's iron supply and her munitions industries. In that black week in June of 1940 Britain stood virtually alone against the Nazi onslaught from the air.

With the conquests already consolidated, Germany commenced putting to work a labor army of subject peoples now numbering near two and a half million, poles, Italians, French, Belgians and Dutch. Thus she released more men to the engines of war she had already built or captured. With the fall of France the United States began to question the "Myth of the Militia" sufficiently to pass its first peace-time Conscription Act in history. In July, 1940, our regular Army consisted of only 265,000 men. Most of the National Guard units consisted of companies. None of our forces were trained in the methods of modern warfare. As Secretary Stimson put it on New Year's Eve last, "the Government was in the position a football coach would be in at the beginning of the season if he found he only had a mass of men, the bulk of whom had not played football, and those who had played, had only played soccer." We had not enough powder to last our Army now overseas for one day's fighting, and worse, no powder plants to make it.

Meanwhile, the war in the Balkans put Germany in control of so large a base of operations in the Mediterranean as to virtually close that direct line of communications to the Far East and threaten the destruction of Britain's strongholds in Northern Africa, including Suez.

Despite the pact with the Soviets, it next became obvious that Germany's long-delayed war with Russia was at hand, and on June 22nd, 1941, the latest of Hitler's assurances was ground into the mud by tanks and troops heading east. It took less than two months for Hitler to possess the rich Ukraine which produces nearly one-fifth of the world's wheat.

That fall the persistence in the tradition of the "Myth of the Militia" almost saw our new trained Army sent home at the end of one year's training. Suddenly the blow fell, and the reality of lightning war flashed from across both oceans. The truth which misguided peace-mongers had prevented us from fully seeing, the equally misguided sons of Nippon taught us in the dawn of a peaceful Hawaiian Sunday morning. We were all in the fight together within the next few days. But we were to pay for delay and belief in the "Myth of the Militia".

The least military observer, after seeing the news reels of the broken, twisted, smoking ruins of ships and planes at Pearl Harbour and after reading our casualty list, must realize the licking that we took on December 7th. The thing that couldn't happen, had happened! Time galloped on. On the 8th, Thailand and Malaya were invaded, the Philippines on the 10th. Guam, which we wouldn't fortify, fell on the 12th. Wake was captured Christmas Eve, and next day, the 40-million-dollar fortress of Hong Kong was Japan's Christmas present after only ten days' fighting. Manila fell January 2nd and despite MacArthur's stand on Bataan, the Philippines were doomed. In swift succession, by former standards, Japan accomplished a six-and-a-Half year conquest in six and a half weeks! Count the Milestones: Thailand, Malaya, Borneo, Singapore, Sumatra, Java, Bataan, Corregidor, and Burma!

Let us pause to count our losses. With the Philippines went hemp and sugar and natural resources and we were pushed 5,500 miles farther away from Japan. Positions in Thailand exposed Burma and enabled Japan to cut the Burma Road. Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, previously securing all of the world's rubber supply to the United Nations, in falling, left us with but 2% equally divided between Africa and South America. Still we complain of tire and gasoline rationing! And it takes 150,000 pounds of rubber for a 25,000 ton warship; 1,750 pounds for a medium tank, and 1,246 pounds for a flying fortress!

Your paper-gum wrappers and cigarette packages mutely testify to the loss of more than 64% of the world's supply of tin which Japan got with the East Indies and the Malay States. 90% of the world's quinine was cut off--and Corregidor fell, as much for want of quinine to fight malaria as for any other reason. Within a radius of 3,000 miles Japan now has that 61,000,000 barrel annual production of oil so vital to the planes and tanks and ships of the United Nations. All that is left us in the Far East is a dribble in Mongolia.

And how does that vital oil get there now? From New York to Perth is 65 long days by tanker; from San Francisco to Sydney, more than a month. This oil must run the gauntlet of German submarines, even if the Mediterranean is opened, and the Navy and airplanes of Japan stand between us and our South Pacific bases.

The loss of Singapore moved Britain 3,000 miles farther away in striking distance from Japan. The Japanese activity in the Aleutian Islands indicates that they are there to set up more than a weather station

There are some compensating facts. The man-power potential of the Axis (eighteen to thirty-five) is 85,000,000, while the United Nations can muster, on the same basis, 187,000,000. Despite the magic of the speed of wings which Blitzkrieg has imparted to the bulk and weight and power of the engines of war, men are still the most important element of all. The Axis had the jump in preparation. But we know that the free men who love the cause of Liberty will triumph in the end. But what a price the "Myth of the Militia" has cost and will cost ere that victory is achieved.

In June of last year, while United States planes bombed Wake Island, Rommel was capturing Matruh and Fuka in Egypt. In July the Germans took Sevastapol in the Crimea and Rostov in Russia, pushing toward Stalingrad. They reached El Alamein only 200 miles from the Suez Canal. The Japs completed the capture of the Nanchang-Hangchow Railway in China, occupied Agattu in the Aleutians, and landed at Buna in New Guinea. Meanwhile, a huge United States naval base was completed in northern Ireland.

The following month the Japs took Kokoda in New Guinea, occupied strategic islands north of Darwin, Australia, and threatened Port Moresby by landing at Milne Bay. The Germans nearly ringed Stalingrad with steel and pushed deeper into the Caucasus. The United States fought two battles of the Solomons, electrocuted six Nazi saboteurs in Washington, landed on Guadalcanal, participated slightly in the Dieppe raid with you, and helped welcome our newest ally, Brazil, which declared war on Germany and Italy.

In September began the siege of Stalingrad. While the British took the capital of Madagascar, United States troops occupied the Galapagos Islands defending Panama, and Wendell Willkie visited the fighting capitals of the United Nations.

October saw some hope, with the Allies pushing the Japs back from Port Moresby, and the Japanese withdrawal from Attu and Agattu, as well as witnessing the move of United States troops out of the Andreanof Islands in Aleutians. The Australians captured Templeton's Crossing in the Owen Stanley Mountains of New Guinea. The British Eighth Army started its powerful westward push from El Alamein, and the "impossible" engineering task was completed which opened the Alaskan-Canadian Military Highway to traffic.

In November, while the Germans made their farthest advance into the Caucasus by capturing Alagir and threatening the Georgia Military Highway, the British Eighth Army recaptured Matruh and, under the leadership of United States Lieutenant-General Eisenhower and British Admiral Cunningham, the Allies invaded northwest Africa, subdued Algeria and Morocco, and pushed into Tunisia. Almost simultaneously the Germans moved into Occupied France and took Bizerte and Gabes in Tunisia. The Italians occupied Corsica.

Westward moved the Eighth Army of the British under the protection of the R.A.F. and the American Air Force, decimating Rommell's Africa Corps. The Russians crossed the Don in force and the siege of Stalingrad was lifted by fierce Societ thrusts into strategic positions all along the line. The Germans seized Toulon (characteristically breaking another Hitler promise) and, in response, the most heroic mass act of the war saw the suicide of the French Fleet, physically. but the spiritual regeneration of France before the eyes of the world. Meanwhile, the R.A.F. pounded Italy, the Aussies captured Gona in New Guinea, and Admiral Callahan drove the San Francisco and its 8-inch guns between the battle lines and the 14-inch guns of Nipponese battleships to defeat the "Rising Sons of Japan" at the cost of his own life. (Applause.)

With the turn of these events which Winston Churchill has characterized as "The End of the Beginning", many people had their hopes raised for a quick victory and an early peace. Be not deceived. Already, despite a skillfully planned and executed North African campaign, the stiffening Axis resistance at Bizerte and Tunis is warning of the long and bloody time which will elapse before we occupy Berlin. The entrenched Japanese positions in the Far East, viciously defended, indicate the difficult road to Tokyo.

In December the Aussies took Gona. The Japs reopened assaults on the Burma Road. Rommel's Army was in complete retreat into Libya. British launched a drive into Burma toward Akyab. Russians increased large-scale operations threatening Rostov and the German Caucasus positions. Darlan was assassinated and replaced by Giraud.

With years of preparation behind them and with no real resistance to stem the tide of Blitz-Krieg-political and military conquest, it has taken the Nazis over six years to possess most of Europe. It began with the occupation of the Rhineland in 1936, but the real push began March 12, 1938, with the Austrian "Anschluss". Japan moved into Manchuria in 1931 and has been on the move ever since.

A glance at one map will indicate that after more than a year of training and an additional year of war, we have only begun to close with the enemy with large forces in the European Theatre. In the Pacific the possession of Guadalcanal represents but the first stepping stone back toward Tokyo. There are some twenty-seven more major ones. It took the Japs three months and ten days to fully consolidate these points. It has taken longer for us to establish ourselves in a thirty-five mile strip surrounding Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. This is an indicator of the difficulty of the task ahead.

Thus we see that the first full year of war has been one of making "regulars" of the total Armed Forces of the United States and of gearing the mass production of her peace-time industries to all-out war, not only to equip those forces but to become the "Arsenal of Democracy" for the United Nations.

Now how far have we succeeded? I respectfully refer you to the aforementioned press conference of the Secretary of War and to the January 7 address to the Congress by the President of the United States, my Commander-in-Chief. As Mr. Roosevelt said, "Yes--we believe the Nazis and the Fascists have asked for it-and they are going to get it." (Applause.)

As Mr. Stimson said, "Today we have an army of over five million men . . . including literally tens of thousands of pilots . . . We are rapidly training the officers of these forces who are chosen by the most democratic method and educated by the most thorough system of officer schools we have had in our history. This army of ours is being rapidly equipped with the best planes that are in the air today, with the best tanks on the ground today, with the best self-propelled artillery in action today, and with the best rifles--according to almost unanimous testimony--that are being used in any part of the world today. The average American soldier today weighs eight pounds more than his fellow of 1918. The average soldier of today is also a sober man. Fifty percent confine themselves to soft drinks entirely; only forty percent drink beer and less than ten per cent drink distilled liquors. He is moral. A much larger percentage of our soldiers go to church than the percentage of citizens outside of the Army go to their churches. He is healthy. The general disease rate is lower than in any previous war. Upon this pedestal of sound physique we are trying to place the indispensable moral qualities. We are combining education with the training and are furnishing them with every element which tends to produce what the old Romans called 'Mens Sano in Corpore Sano'--that is, 'a sound mind in a sound body'."

Thus, to the greatest extent in the history of the United States we have put aside "The Myth of the Militia". Thus we bring the power of our nation side by side with yours into close grips on a large scale with the enemy. Thus do we answer the challenge of our day embodied in the words of Lieut.-Colonel John McCrea with which I concluded my remarks of last year. You remember the last few lines

"Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields."

And now there is an answer to that challenge--typified by Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, junior, an American citizen born of missionary parents in Shanghai and educated in Britain's famed Rugby School. In September of 1940 he left the campus of Yale to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He served overseas with an R.C.A.F. Spitfire Squadron until his death on active service, December 11, 1941. Like McCrae in World War I, he left a heritage of poetry-a sonnet scribbled on the back of a letter to his mother in Washington which already is ranked by Archibald McLeish, Librarian of Congress, with Rupert Brooke's "The Soldier", and John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields". From his background of the Orient, of England, of American University life, combined in the short life of this young Canadian Air Force officer, may I leave it with you as he has left it for posterity. It is called "High Flight"

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds -and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of-wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hovering there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand and touched the face of God."

-(Applause.)

MR. JOHN C. M. MACBETH: Major Rosengren, I think I could not do very much better than simply say "Thank You" for this address. I am one who believes that the poet can much better express thought than the prose writer.

We are very grateful to you that you have chosen to end your address with the beautiful words of this poem, a real poem. You have given us a moving picture of the "Myth of the Militia". It is no pacifist address, and we are glad of that; it smacks of unity, and its smacks of co-operation, and we are glad of those two features. You have drawn on history to show us that the well-equipped, well trained army is always superior, even though shorter in numbers, than the badly equipped, badly trained, mass or rabble. It took us a long time, over a period of a great many years since the last war, to come to that realization, but we have it now, and although I don't like fights, I think I can say that we are going to retain that sort of spirit for some years to come, until the other fellow is content to accept our philosophy of life.

We are very grateful to you, Sir, for coming to us. If we were not on the radio, we would apologize to you for the rough weather we are having in Toronto.