PACIFIC COAST AT JAP'S MERCY, SAYS SENATOR

Works, of California, Says Million Men Are Needed to Protect Pacific Coast Would Give Them Land.

WASHINGTON, Thursday, Dec. 16. -- Senator Works of California told the Senate today that a standing army of 1,000,000 men would be necessary to defend the United States against possible invasions and declared that the Pacific Coast was completely at the mercy of Asiatic attack.

Senator Works spoke on the subject of national defense, but particularly to propose as a part of the scheme of preparedness, the creation of a mobile land force and military reserve of 200,000 men at a cost of $50,000,000 a year for ten years.

The proposed enlisted men in civil and military reserve would be settled, according to the Works bill, with their families in comfortable five-acre tracts provided by the government, supplementing ten months of productive work at reforestation, irrigation and flood prevention with two months of military training each year. They would be soldier-settlers under the control of the secretary of the interior in times of peace, and subject to orders of the department in time of war.

Japanese Peril.

"There are enough Japanese in California now to man and destroy every line of communication from the East, isolating California and depriving her of all aid in troops and ammunition," said the senator. "Mexico is open to the entry of the Japanese, and once there, it is but a step across an invisible boundary into the United States.

"The plan to add 100,000 men to our present army is a dangerous step in the wrong direction. It would not avail a day to defend California against Japanese invasion. It would find difficulty in maintaining itself against the Japanese already in the state. If we are to be consistent we must either put the army on a war footing of at least 1,000,000 men or turn to a more efficient means of defense."

Outlining the scope of his bill, Senator Works declared 1,000,000 families could be recruited from the tenement districts of the great cities alone and settled on homestead tracts in the West.

His bill would provide that the men be enlisted for terms of five years. It would authorize the secretary of the interior to set aside public lands or to purchase lands and to construct water rights necessary to supply such lands.