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Show Preparedness For War :H SOME years ago a distinguished English writer 'H said, that England had not had a war for '1 three hundred years for which she was prepared H when it burst upon them. Never enough soldiers, H never enough material, with the natural result 'H that most victories were won by forlorn hopes; 'H the men fighting at tremendous odds, held up in lH battle until exhausted, and sacrificing thousands LH of lives unnecessarily, simply because the force l! in the beginning was too small. H General Hamilton's account of the fighting on . H the Gallipoli peninsula is a reminder that the H same rule is still continued. Great Britain has ! H depended on her fleet, and when any land forces I H have been needed they have always been insuf- H ficient and thousands of lives have been uselessly H sacrificed. Even at Waterloo, after Napoleon had ! H been threatening the invasion of England for f H years, the utmost that the allies could do was i H to array an inferior force against France. Na- j H poleon's old army of half a million men had per- T ished on the retreat from Moscow. But despite H that disaster, and despite all the losses that France had suffered in those twenty years in sup- iil plying Napoleon with army after army to carry ijfl on his conquests, when the final reckoning came, Napoleon set that last battle in array with every I H indication of victory because he had more guns l and more men than all his enemies combined, I H and only the decree of fate above and the failure I of Grouchy below, gave the allies the victory. In !, M considering a way to have this country prepared H for war that history should be kept in mind and M the one striking thought above all others should M be, that whatever else is done, our armies should M never be so contracted in numbers as to make a M useless sacrifice of thousands of brave lives M necessary. Of course there should be care to M keep abreast of every improvement made in the M means of destruction. Indeed premiums should H be perpetually offered for every improvement an- M nounced, for every discovery in chemistry, for f M every improved application in mechanics, and M facilities should always be kept ample for swiftly M supplying soldiers with the most modern in3tru- l ments of death; but the great essential need is to rrH have men trained and to have facilities arranged IH to concentrate them at any desired point. We fl believe that the opinion of many military men B is that this can be best done by making pre- ll Hminary military training a part of the curricu- l lum of all the high schools or advanced schools, H and then have a month's manuevers every auaj II tumn directed by officers of the regular army, a'ndj l ! M CM H in connection with all the regular soldiers in H each state. |