Excerpt from The Organization of the Land Forces of the United States
Preparedness may be defined as a state of reasonable assurance of success in trial. But assurance in this sense signifies knowledge, something more than arrogance and more than the assumption of wisdom which at times are implied by the term. It means understanding of capacity, and ability to direct efforts to the best advantage. Preparedness is thus a product of mental and physical qualities. The physical alone arc insufficient. Brute strength avails little unless skilfully directed. On the other hand, while knowledge alone is also insufficient, it is enough to constitute the prime factor of preparedness. The mentally undeveloped fare worse in this world than the physically incapacitated.
Military preparedness is a thing unknown to the United States. There is no national assurance of success in any trial of arms. There is, indeed, a kind of national arrogance which seeks to take its place, but this is the antithesis of the knowledge implied by our definition. It is ignorance intrenched in the pride of lusty youth. For we are nationally lusty; we are not yet lacking physically, even in a military sense. It is mentally that we fail. We arc militarily ignorant; we are without understanding of our military capacity, and without ability to direct military efforts to the best advantage. This in relation to the nation at large is so patent to military minds that it needs no argument here. But evil as this is, it is the best of a bad matter. For nationally, despite our military ignorance, we maintain some sort of a military establishment of regular and militia forces. With questions of its adequacy in number we are not for the moment concerned. The fact of its existence is sufficient.
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