President Roosevelt, who laid the corner-stone of the New Army
War College at Washington last Saturday, delivered a short but significant address on Army efficiency. The trend of events, he said, had forced the nation into the position of a world-Power, and burdened it with responsibilities in both the Occident and the Orient. This burden could not he borne aright unless their voice was potent for peace and justice, unless, that is, they could ask for peace, " not in the spirit of the weakling or the craven, but with the assured self-confi- dence of the just man armed." It was beginning to be gener- ally recognised that the efficiency of the Army in war, like that of the Navy, depended on the efficiency of its preparation in peace. Their Army was small, nor was it desirable that it should be other than small, relatively to the population ; but they had a right to expect that it should represent for its size the very highest point of efficiency of any army in the civilised world. The older men will be a little alarmed by his appeal, but Mr. Roosevelt will, we believe, find a response to his words in the majority of Americans under forty-five.
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