Defense Day

In 1924, the War Department announced that a defense test would be held on Sept. 12 of that year (anniversary of the battle of St. Mihiel). Onetime (1923-25) Governor Charles W. Bryan of Nebraska, then Democratic candidate for Vice President, protested against the idea of a nation-wide defense test as militaristic. For a while it looked like an issue. But the test was held throughout the country, except in Wisconsin.

In 1925 the Department started to hold another defense test on Armistice Day, but churches and other organizations protested that a peace day should not be given over to preparing against possible war. The President disapproved of it on Armistice Day, and the defense test was held on July 4 with not very great success.

Last week, Secretary of War Dwight F. Davis announced that there would probably be no Defense Day this year. The Department, he said, was not abandoning the day which General Pershing had sponsored, but would perhaps hold the test every two or three years.