MILLER FREEMAN SEES "YELLOW PERIL" AHEAD

Chief of Washington Naval Militia Warns Members to Prepare for Call to Actual Service Against Japan.

MEN OF PACIFIC COAST WOULD BEAR THE BRUNT

Middle West and East Woefully Unappreciative and Indifferent to Real Conditions Menacing Country.

Commander Miller Freeman of the Washington naval militia so strongly scents war with Japan that he was moved last night to tell members of his crew that they must go into the organization and its work on the theory that they are preparing for actual service.

"I do not go to the extreme and say that war is inevitable," said the commander in his short address on the drill floor of the armory, "but I want you all to feel, as I do, that a conflict of arms with Japan is highly probable. You young men may expect at any time to be called upon by the government for actual service. I am not saying this to frighten you. I am neither an extremist nor an alarmist, but I am not going to blindfold your eyes and let you go into this important branch of the coast defense with the idea that your terms of enlistment will be unbroken lines of pleasure and jollity. You have serious work to do in preparing yourselves to aid in the protection of your home and land.

Burden Rests on Coast.

"In case of conflict we men of the Pacific Coast will have a heavy burden to carry and for a long time we must do it alone. The Middle West and the East know nothing of our conditions and are supremely indifferent what becomes of us so long as their pocketbooks are not touched. Serious-minded men told me recently in the East that our Japanese question was irritating to them as it was nothing more nor less than an attempt to revive the race question settled by the Civil War. To a Pacific Coast man such misconception seems impossible, but it prevails nevertheless. It is strongly up to us to take care of ourselves.

"This is realized by the editor of The Seattle Daily Times, who is farsighted enough to see that we are drifting rapidly toward war and is fearless enough to make that fact plain to the people and to censure the government for withdrawing the protection of our fleets, which are as much the property of the residents of the Pacific Coast as of the inhabitants of the Atlantic seaboard, but no one would believe it by looking at their stations.

Papers Should Sound Warning.

"When a newspaper like The Seattle Daily Times, with its great facilities for gathering authentic information, points to the danger ahead, men should pause and heed the warning. I wish journals like The Times would go a step further and thoroughly arouse citizens and individuals to action. Events of late have whirled us into the forefront of world politics and, whether we want to or not, we have to maintain our place as a military nation. The government cannot do it all. The government is nothing but the people and if the people are not skilled in their own defense the government cannot protect them. In this country the percentage of those who know the first rudiments of bearing arms or of military organization is pitifully small. The safety of the nation is in the people and the people must be aroused to action if our coast is to be saved from devastation by a foreign enemy."

New Recruits Added.

The first drill since the Cheyenne cruise was conducted last night after Commander Freeman had concluded his address to the two divisions. Thirty-five recruits were enrolled and assigned to the second division, the first division being made up of the men who went to San Francisco.

Commander Freeman also told the men he had been informed that the Cheyenne will be docked at the Bremerton navy yard in a few days and that the small amount of work remaining to be done before the monitor is in shape to turn over to the militia will be completed this month and the vessel returned to Elliott Bay.