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Show COMMUNICATION Preparedness for War. Garfield, Utah. Oct. 17. 10H. Editor Tribune: Ansnt your editorial In the Isauo of the 20th In making comparison between the advance of Germans In 1870 and their comparative failure In the present campaign, cam-paign, on one point you are perfectly correct cor-rect In your statement about the French armies belnir hantlly iratliercil toKotlier and poorly organized, belnc utterly unable un-able to cope with tho Germans, who were thoroughly trained, even when the formor had a preponderance of numbers on their side. In many cancn the French were defeated even when on the defensive with a numerical superiority of two to one. Is It not time that wo In the United States ptorileri by that demonstration ol the siiperlorllv "f ettli-li'iilly (mllie.l moI-dlers7 moI-dlers7 Tho 'lilted Stutefi today, ucconl-lns ucconl-lns to United States military ex.erla. If not even prepared for a dcfenilve, let alone an offensive cainpiilKn. The pren-cnt pren-cnt war in Kuropo is showing tho value or tho artillery arm of the wervk-o. yet, aeeording to Itio Army nnrl Nnvy Journal, all that the United Slutes eon place h the field are I'ti tutterloB of three-Incl' ffunr- elllier 9i K"n:l or 1C hat terl'-H. I don't exactly reiollert at tills moment liiiwovcr even un J-J'ii opeun army eorps h Hopi'lled with more than doublo th amount that Is allotted lo the whole regular reg-ular aiiny establishment of the L'nltH'. ytatcs. If true, tt Is a lamentable state oi unpieparedness on the part of I'le lc Sain ApoloKlstfi ff,r ,h!H Mute of nffnlis elatf that we can raise an army of hair n million In a lav or two. Well, taklni piri.onn from private lip. with no pievioir mlllliiry tralnlnit, drcsidng tlieni In uniform uni-form mill serving out to them riflps an' it in m n i il t Ion. what have you7 An mtiiv' I'l-rtalnl" not. No matter how devote' llielr patrlollim and their eacernehn If lliht. not mi ariuy bv any meniih; untiling until-ing but an niiiird nioh who are likely lo lie more danx'Tous lo I h'-n n-iel ves thai lo the Plieuiv. II la a crime to f.e,,d ra w iieYierteii.'l Iferillt". illlertv ili'Vnld o rllsi Ipllrie. to fiKhf a train--'! awny. Ti iirnd that elayn of men who have le-eai.y le-eai.y liven Inlo Ihe In-iirlieM without be ln hardened, why. thev would ilp o dl:;f:iMO hhe flb-fr, fori-i? men who seldon du an1.' amount of v.allilm.: In ordinal-.' tlinra 'to eover thirty miles on a for. '--. n;ir(l, In hot u'-nll.er, lainlm: foil ill! n,ld you will hav ' '' -t Npl-t,- h- ol'i-id oijl, nli'i'l" n;n 1'"" loanv .'"in nVlid'"', b-'Oie " " . , , , ,, I . , I , u- t: ""I 'A t"-K s, l.n I IiK'tlt h:-. I ' -;,t!...r l..i;HlM-l " "' "l V.H-U...,, nr. : !l tj,.:( ,-,ifn ;pi. I Ml". '"l l n..':t;r", ('""I .'ll' fodder for men ami horses, a mmunitSon and me-iical supplies to thoroughly euip an army of luO.uCO men, let' alone li;ilf a million, owin to t:ie uUer absurdity of United States regular troops beins scattered over the country in is-olaUd posts posts that have no military value to them, So far quick mobilization d concerned, theso posts to be of useful service should be. near fome large railroad rail-road center; hardly any American officer has had any experience in handling anymore any-more than 20,000 men at one time. The fruits of this were seen last year, according; ac-cording; to the Army and Navy Register, during the joint maneuvers of regular troops and National guard. Some w here In Masa dinner ts the force numbered nearly H',000 mid the commlKfariat completely com-pletely broke duwn and the troops were forced to go on half rations In a land of plenty in a time of peace. God only knows whit I chaos and confusion would have happened had that force been 50,000 strong. Organization counts In these days and seemingly the United States is behind the times and woefully deficient in this most important and essential art of military science. Two years ago Uncle Sam dispatched, according to the paper?, 20,000 men to the borders of Mexico; it took over six weeks, but, according to report, in the Army and Navy Journal, the total force was barely 15,000. and nearly one-third were hastilv gathered recruits with no military training what-evpr, what-evpr, and the same journal stated publicly pub-licly that owing to troops having led lives of compa ra tfvp idleness in isolated posts the regulars were au "soft" that It wns a month before the commander thou gin them hard enough to undertake a forced march uf twenty miles with full kit, and even then evcral hundred fell out from , sheer exhaustion. This Item did not ap-; ap-; pear in the daily pres. The daily papers pa-pers stated that Uncle Sam was fully prepared, pre-pared, but the regular armv officers who knew had an entirely different talc to tell. America, like Great Britain, depends on the obsolete system of voluntary enlistment enlist-ment to raise an army and pat themselves them-selves on the back, saying thry will muddle through somehow, more by good luck than Kood maim gement. but any country hoping to muddle through by good luck all the time is simply tempting Providence. Provi-dence. This muddling through is a costly business, both in life and in material treasure. As stated in a previous editorial Great Britain is belter rrepared this time than any other period In her history. As one American service journal say?, "The dispatHi of over 150,000 thoroughly thor-oughly trained soldiers, fully equipped with every essential for war, provisioned for over three months, the landing of all this on French soli within sixteen days, without the loss of a man. gun or a pound of ma terial, with the enemy's fleet, the second strongest in the world, within easy striking d is ranee, bottled up, impotent, unable to offer any resistance, is a feat of combined navul and lnllitnry operations opera-tions unparalleled in the whole history of war, whether ancient, medieval or modern." mod-ern." Yet, when all is said and done that immense im-mense force, It would have been termed an immense force during the Napoleonic struggles, ia only a drop in the bucket In comparison to the enormous forces that a re lined on each side of the farfluag zigzag battle line that stretches from Antwerp to Meiz. In Great Britain at the present time are over Soo.OOO men under un-der arms, but it will be nearly six months before the vast .majority will be sent to the front. Even the pick of the Canadian troops, splendid shots, most of them having hav-ing had some form of military training In regiments that correspond to the United States National guard, have not been sent to the front, but to various military camps, such an Aldershot and Salisbury Plain, to complete their training. Tlje moral Is that it ia only in times of peace that a nation can adequately prepare for war. JOHN MORGAN. |
