THE NEEDS OF OUR ARMY
* * * * *
LETTER FROM GENERAL LEONARD WOOD
GOVERNOR'S ISLAND, N. Y.,
_February 6th, 1915._
_Dear Mr. Maxim:_
_I am very glad indeed to learn of your interest in military
preparedness. The subject is one which is of vital importance to the
American people. We do not want to establish militarism in this country
in the sense of creating a privileged military class, dominating the
civil element, receiving especial recognition, and exercising perhaps an
undue influence upon the administration of national affairs, but we do
want to build up in every boy a realization of the fact that he is an
integral part of the nation, and that he has a military as well as a
civic responsibility. All this can be done without creating a spirit of
militarism or of aggressiveness. Take Switzerland as an example. Here we
have a country where every boy and young man who is physically sound
receives, largely as a part of his school work, military training to the
extent necessary to make him an efficient soldier. This is a policy
which ought to be followed with our youth. It is not enough that a
man should be willing to be a soldier. He should also be so prepared as
to be an efficient one. This can only be accomplished through training.
Switzerland and Australia have shown that this can be done through the
public-school system, and with a resulting vast improvement in public
morals and the quality of citizenship. The criminal rate in Switzerland
is only a small fraction of ours. Respect for the law and constituted
authorities, the flag of the country, and a high sense of patriotism are
evident on all sides, and yet there is practically no standing army._
_We have here a patriotic people, living not with arms in their hands,
or with a large standing army, but trained, equipped, and ready to
efficiently and promptly defend the rights of their country. This I
believe is the ideal we should strive for. We need a standing army big
enough for the peace work of the day, i.e., the garrisoning of our
foreign possessions, the Philippines, the Hawaiian Islands, Panama, the
little garrisons in Porto Rico and Alaska, and a force in the
continental United States adequate for the peace needs of the nation._
_We must never again trust ourselves to the emergencies of a great war
without proper preparation. If we do we shall meet with an overwhelming
disaster. Preparedness is really an insurance for peace, and not an
influence for war._
[Illustration]
_To send our men untrained into war to meet equally good men, well
trained and disciplined, was once described by Light Horse Harry Lee, of
Revolutionary fame, as murder. Perhaps this is too strong, but it
certainly is a gross disregard of human life._
_Very truly yours,_
LEONARD WOOD.
MR. HUDSON MAXIM,
_698 St. Mark's Ave.,
Brooklyn, N. Y._
* * * * *
The facts given in this chapter have been gathered from many
authoritative sources. It would be very comforting if these facts were
known only to the American people, but unfortunately they are already
known to the military authorities of all the other nations. Other
nations are all very well aware of our unpreparedness; therefore, I am
giving out no national secrets. English, German, French, Russian, and
Japanese navy and military experts know exactly the men and equipment we
possess.
It is the American people only who are not aware of the truth about our
unpreparedness. This ignorance is largely due to the beguilers who have
set the face of a great mass of our people against armaments, and have
made them turn deaf ears to every voice that tries to rouse them to
their danger.
Our ship of state has been drifting down stream like a raft. The only
reason the raft has not been wrecked lies in the fact that we have been
fortunate enough to have a pretty clear stream to ourselves all the
while, with no breakers and no cataracts in sight. But there are
breakers and rapids and cataracts down stream, and we are at last
nearing them rapidly.
Even as long ago as 1880, General Emory Upton spoke thus prophetically:
* * * * *
"_In time of war the civilian as much as the soldier is responsible for
defeat and disaster. Battles are not lost alone on the field; they may
be lost beneath the Dome of the Capitol, they may be lost in the
Cabinet, or they may be lost in the private office of the Secretary of
War. Wherever they may be lost, it is the people who suffer and the
soldiers who die, with the knowledge and the conviction that our
military policy is a crime against life, a crime against property, and a
crime against liberty. The author has availed himself of his privilege
as a citizen to expose to our people a system which, if not abandoned,
may sooner or later prove fatal. The time when some one should do this
has arrived._"
* * * * *
In 1912, Admiral Kane said: "They told me in London, 'You are living in
a fool's paradise. Some day you will wake up with a fight on your
hands, and you won't be ready for it.'"
Not only must the United States solve the great problem of shaping a
military policy that will enable us to establish an adequate force for
national defense in time of war, to build up and man our Navy, construct
and man coast fortifications, and enlist, arm, and train an adequate
army, but also there must be faced the far more difficult problem of
enlisting the co-operation of the American people in the enterprise.
The fathers of our country, believing that a large standing Army would
be a menace to the liberties of the people, ordained that our Army, in
time of peace, should not exceed twenty-five thousand. Since then,
Congress has several times raised the limit until we now may have an
Army, in time of peace, of not more than a hundred thousand men. As a
matter of fact, we have a regular Army of 93,016, both staff and line.
As this Army has to be spread out over our entire continental and
outlying possessions, the sight of an American soldier of our regular
Army is about as rare an occurrence as the sight of a sea-serpent.
Within the actual limits of our forty-eight states we have but 48,428
regular troops. Of these 17,947 must be kept in our coast
fortifications, even as a pretense of garrisoning them. This leaves only
30,481 mobile troops, including engineers, cavalry, infantry, and field
artillery. We have a militia on paper numbering 127,000, men and
officers. Only 60,000 of these, however, are in readiness for service.
Therefore, we have in the United States to-day a regular Army of 48,000,
and 60,000 militia ready for duty, or 108,000 men and officers
altogether. In time of war not a man of our militia could well be spared
for military service to repel an invader, for in such troublesome times
they would all be needed for police duty to maintain order and obedience
throughout the country.
General Wood recently told us that it would take a month to mobilize
even our little Army of thirty thousand men.
Out of the 127,000 officers and men of the militia which we have on
paper, only 60,000 being available, and only 30,000 of our regulars
being available, we could place on the firing-line only 90,000 men and
officers, and there would be no reserves.
When Napoleon, the world's greatest military captain, went into battle,
he always kept a large and powerful force in reserve, to give confidence
to those on the firing-line, and to save the day in case of a reverse,
and possibly to turn defeat into victory, and at the worst to cover a
retreat, and save the army from rout. This same need exists with us for
a large national reserve of well-armed and well-trained men, ready to be
called from civil life to refill the depleted ranks of an army at the
front.
[Illustration: Number of Officers and Enlisted Men of United States
Regular Army]
Our regular Army is, in men and guns, but a mere nucleus of what we
ought to have, and of what we must have to save this country from defeat
and abject humiliation should war come.
Not only this--the artillery we have is without adequate field
organization. It would take at least four months to train additional
personnel in order to get our field artillery ready for duty. It would
take us four times as long, therefore, to get our own artillery on the
firing-line, ready for battle, on either our eastern or western
seaboard, as it would for an enemy to get its artillery there.
It is we ourselves who are handicapped by isolation, not the
enemy--isolation not of space, but of time.
If it be true that God fights on the side that is the best equipped with
artillery, God could not be expected to fight on the side of our
militia.
Our militia at the present time has only sixty-five organized batteries,
with four guns each. It is absolutely imperative that we should have
seventy-nine additional batteries, with six guns each, even moderately
to complete our equipment in field artillery. Think of it! Our militia
has less than half the number of field batteries necessary for battle.
It is also worthy of mention that these batteries are without ammunition
trains, and without officers or men for the new organization, and we
have not the necessary horses to draw the batteries we already have.
Our militia is entirely without siege artillery, while neither our
militia nor our regular Army is equipped with field mortars or howitzers
of the larger calibers now used abroad, which have been so terribly
effective in the present war.
Not only are foreign nations far ahead of us in actual existing war
strength in men and guns, but also they have each an efficient system
whereby their present equipment may be rapidly expanded. We have no such
system.
OUR FATAL ISOLATION
Never yet have we perceived the important truth that in this age of war
machinery, requiring months and years to create, isolation by time is an
equivalent to isolation by distance. Our own isolation in the matter of
the time required for us to raise and train armies and equip them with
shoulder-rifles, automatic guns, quick-firing cannon, siege howitzers,
ammunition supply trains, and to build, man, and equip with guns,
battleships, battle-cruisers, torpedo-boat destroyers, submarines, and,
no less important, to equip flying machines with trained aviators, would
be a far more serious handicap to us than our isolation by the seas
would be to our enemies.
The _Scientific American_, February 6, 1915, says:
* * * * *
"_We could not supply the men for the necessary field-artillery
organization for four months, or the ammunition trains and ammunition
for a year and a half, and not a gun is yet made or appropriated for,
for the volunteers. The militia is short in cavalry and requires over
fifty additional troops of cavalry to provide the divisional cavalry
alone. There is an alarming absence of auxiliary troops. Most of the
militia cavalry is poorly mounted, much of it practically without
mounts, and, with the exception of a few special organizations, has had
little or no field training. It needs months of hard work in camp.
Engineers, signal and medical troops of the militia are as a rule
insufficient in number, deficient in organization, equipment, and
reserve supplies, and very many of them are far below their prescribed
strength and without available personnel to fill them up._"
* * * * *
The following is quoted from a statement made before a Congressional
committee in 1912, by General William Crozier, Chief of Ordnance of the
United States Army, and one of the ablest officers that the Army has
ever had:
* * * * *
"_So far as transporting troops is concerned, the sea as a highway is
not an obstacle, but a facility. It is very much easier to get any
number of troops across the Atlantic Ocean than it would be to get the
same number over anything like the same distance on land. Marine
transportation is the very best kind you can have; the easiest, least
expensive, and most expeditious, if you are considering large bodies of
troops and large amounts of material. The fuel charge for transportation
in good tramp steamers does not amount to one two-hundred-and-fiftieth
part of a cent per ton per mile. The sea is a splendid means of
transportation. The distance is only ten days for a vessel of very
moderate speed, and you can carry a thousand men on a vessel of 3,000
tons' capacity without any trouble at all. There are any number of
vessels to be had, and there is no resistance on this side against a
well-equipped force of a hundred thousand men._"
* * * * *
SHORTAGE OF OFFICERS
We have in our regular Army to-day about 4,572 officers. The number of
English officers killed, wounded, and missing during the first six
months of the European war was, in round numbers, 5,000, a little more
than the total number of our officers.
It has been estimated by the most able authorities, among them the
editor of the _Scientific American_, whom I quote, that: "In case of
invasion we would need 380,000 stationary volunteer coast-guard troops
to guard the approaches to our cities and coast-defense works." We
should also require an additional 500,000 men at the very least. To be
rational, we should have a mobile army of a million men. In this
enormous country a standing army of a million men would, comparatively
speaking, be small. It would still be one-fifth the size of the German
army, one-tenth the size of the Russian army, and it would be less than
the available Japanese army. Surely this great Republic can afford to
maintain a standing army equal to that of Japan!
The number of officers we have at the present time would, of course, be
practically lost in our proposed mobile army of a million men. Radical
and immediate measures should at once be taken to increase tenfold the
officer-making capacity of West Point. Also, any private in the ranks
should, by meritorious conduct manifesting military promise, be open to
promotion to West Point, to complete his education there. This would be
a tremendous stimulus and encouragement to the rank and file.
The burglar who has begun to plan to rob a house and has commenced
inspection of the locality to keep tab on the movement of the police in
the vicinity, has already declared war on that house. The bank-raider
who has begun to spy on the cashier of a bank and the nocturnal habits
of the people of the town, and has equipped himself with the kit of
tools and the explosives to breach the vault where the cash lies, has
already declared war on that bank.
In this same sense, and to this same extent, there is more than one
nation that has already declared war on the United States. Their spies
have been working among us for years, and they have the kit of tools and
the explosives all ready to breach our Navy and our coast
fortifications.
Our lack of field-guns for our artillery and our lack of ammunition are
very clearly put in the _Scientific American_ of February 13, 1915:
* * * * *
"_We have in the hands of troops, or stored, 634 completed guns. We have
under manufacture or contract, 226. These guns will probably not be
completed for at least a year and a half. In other words, the number of
completed guns is a little less than half the total number deemed
necessary for the field force of 500,000 men, and provides no guns
whatever for the coastguard troops or new volunteer organizations which
will be required in addition to the 500,000 field force. Of ammunition,
we have, made and under contract, approximately 30 per cent. for the
entire project of guns (1,292). Half of this is under manufacture or
contract, so that there is not more than 15 per cent. actually
completed. For the guns on hand and under manufacture we have, of
ammunition on hand and under manufacture, about 41 per cent.;
actually on hand, approximately, 20.5 per cent. For the guns actually
made (634) we have 27 per cent. of the ammunition necessary. For the
guns now in the hands of the regular army and militia we have about 44
per cent. of the ammunition necessary. It should be remembered, however,
that the guns in the hands of the regular army and militia at the
present time are less than half the guns required for these forces when
properly equipped with guns, even under our scheme for the assignment of
guns and ammunition, which is in both instances far lower than in any of
the great armies today, and the present war has indicated, in the case
of one great power at least, that the consumption of ammunition has
exceeded twice their maximum estimates, and that the proportion of
artillery will, in future, be increased._
[Illustration: Strength of Regular Armies on Peace Footing]
"_At the rate of even last year's appropriations, which were the largest
made for field-artillery guns and ammunition, it will take between eight
and nine years to complete our present modest estimate for guns and
ammunition, and the necessary equipment in the way of ammunition trains
and other accessories._"
* * * * *
We are told in the Report of the Chief of Ordnance, 1914, that no
permanent ammunition trains have been provided.
The following figures give the personnel of our regular Army, and of
our militia. They are taken from the Report of Major-General
Wotherspoon, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, for the period
from April 22, 1914, to November 14, 1914:
_Actual strength of the United States Army_, exclusive of Philippine
scouts:
Officers 4,572
Men 88,444
Authorized strength:
Officers 4,726
Men 95,977
Hence, shortage:
Officers 154
Men 7,533
Of total enlisted strength, 22.50 per cent., including recruits and
recruiting parties, belong to the non-combatant and non-effective class,
and are not with the colors; 19.45 per cent. are in that branch whose
special function is coast-defense.
Mobile army (engineers, cavalry, field artillery, and infantry) is 58.05
per cent. of actual strength, and comprises:
Officers 2,738
Men 51,344
Omitting cooks, musicians, scouts, etc., mobile strength is:
Officers 2,738
Men 45,968
Mobile strength in continental United States:
Enlisted men 30,481
_Ammunition:_
We need 11,790,850 artillery rounds.
We have on hand
and being manufactured 580,000 " "
We need 646,000,000 rifle cartridges.
We have on hand
and being manufactured 241,000,000 " "
We need a supply of 9-1/2, 12-1/2, and 16-1/2 howitzers.
We have only thirty-two 6-inch howitzers and smaller pieces, none
larger.
_Militia:_
Total enlisted men, 119,087, of which only 52.56 per cent. have had any
rifle practice, and only 33.43 per cent. have qualified as second-class
marksmen or better.
From the Report of the Chief of Staff for the year ending June 30, 1914,
we learn that out of our 120,000 militiamen, 23,000 failed to present
themselves for the annual inspection; 31,000 absented themselves from
the annual encampment; and 44,000 never appeared on the rifle range from
one year's end to the other.
Congressman Gardner tells us, further, that 60 per cent. of our militia
were unable, in 1913, to qualify even as third-class marksmen, and that
half of that 60 per cent. (30 per cent.) did not even try to qualify.
For years prior to the breaking out of the great European conflict, Lord
Roberts pleaded with the English people, and prayed that they might hear
his appeal to prepare for war with Germany. Like a voice crying in the
wilderness, he called the British nation to arms. His voice was not
heeded, and the nation did not arm.
The voice of Lord Roberts sounded harshly on the ears of sensitive
English officialdom. Lord Haldane, to emphasize his attitude, disbanded
80,000 British troops at the very moment when England should have
enlisted and begun to train 800,000. Also, he threatened to abolish Lord
Roberts' pension if he did not keep quiet. The grand old soldier was
spared by a kind Providence to stand on the firing-line when the great
war came which he had foreseen, and there he saw thousands of his
country's dead who had fallen from failure to regard his timely warning.
We have a Lord Roberts, too. There is a grand old American soldier who
for years has appealed to us to fly to arms with all speed in
preparation against war. He has even greater reason than Lord Roberts
had, because our danger is many times greater than was England's danger.
We are practically defenseless, while England was not.
I quote the following from the American Lord Roberts, General Leonard
Wood:
* * * * *
"_... We have neither guns nor ammunition sufficient to give any general
commanding an army in the field any assurance of success if attacked by
an army of equal size which is supplied with its proper quota of
field-artillery._
"_The fire of modern field-artillery is so deadly that troops cannot
advance over terrain swept by these guns without prohibitive losses. It
is therefore necessary to neutralize the fire of hostile guns before our
troops can advance, and the only way to neutralize the fire of this
hostile field-artillery is by field-artillery guns, for troops armed
with the small arms are as effectual against this fire until they arrive
at about 2,000 yards from it as though they were armed with knives. This
field-artillery material and ammunition cannot be quickly obtained. In
fact, the Chief of Ordnance estimates that almost one year would be
required to supply the field-artillery guns needed with one field army
of a little less than 70,000 men. No war within the past 45 years has
lasted for one year, so that after war is declared it would probably be
over before we could manufacture an appreciable number of guns; and the
same applies to ammunition._
"_The Ordnance Department states that by running night and day with three
shifts Frankford Arsenal could turn out about 1,600 rounds of ammunition
per day, and that if private manufacturers were given orders to run
under war conditions they could begin deliveries of ammunition in from
three to four months, and after getting under way could turn out about
100,000 or 200,000 rounds per month for two or three months, and after a
total time of six months the production would perhaps equal 250,000
rounds per month. The best estimates indicate that at the end of the
first six months not to exceed 350,000 rounds could be procured from all
sources, including the Government plant. After this six months there
would be no particular difficulty in securing ammunition as rapidly as
might be needed._
"_... It is my belief that ... unless private manufacturers are now
encouraged to manufacture ammunition for our guns after war is declared,
they will not be in any condition to do so until after the war is
finished, and the supply of ammunition during the war will be limited to
what the arsenals can turn out. At present this is about 1,600 rounds
per day, running three shifts, and this ammunition, under ordinary
battle conditions, could be fired by eight guns in one day of battle. If
guns are not supplied on the battlefield with the ammunition which they
can be reasonably expected to use, they are not efficient, and when a
gun has exhausted the ammunition supplied it becomes as perfectly
useless as junk; in fact, it is worse than junk, for it must be
protected by other troops._
"_In the Russo-Japanese War the Russians expended during the war,
exclusive of the action around Port Arthur, 954,000 rounds._
"_At Mukden in nine days they expended 250,000 rounds._
"_One battery of eight guns at Mukden fired 11,159 rounds, or 1,395
rounds per gun._
"_At Liaoyang eight Russian guns fired in three hours 2,500 rounds, or
312 per gun._
"_During August 30 and 31 the First and Third Siberians, with 16
batteries of 8 guns each, fired 108,000 rounds, or 844 rounds per gun._
"_At Schaho, in a four-days' fight, the artillery of the First Infantry
Division--48 guns--fired 602 rounds per gun._
"_At this same battle in 45 minutes, 20 minutes of which were not
occupied by firing, 42 guns fired 8,000 rounds, or 190 rounds per gun
in 25 minutes of actual firing._
"_The War Department believes, after extended study, that in case of war
with a first-class power an army of 500,000 men will be needed to give
this country any chance of success against invasion, and that this force
will be needed at once. To make it efficient it must be given its proper
quota of field-artillery. To do this this artillery must be on hand, for
it cannot be supplied after war is started. A municipality might as well
talk about buying its fire-hose after the conflagration has started. A
fire department without its proper equipment is worthless, irrespective
of the number of men it has; and so would be your armies, unless you
provide in peace the material which will make them effective in
war."--Statement of facts by Major-General Leonard Wood, Hearings on
Fortifications Bill, Dec. 9, 1913._
* * * * *
IS CONGRESS TO BLAME?
The blame for our undefended condition is generally attributed to
Congress. It is true enough that the main blame rests with Congress, but
it must be remembered also that Congress represents the will of the
people.
Every Congressman goes to Washington in the interest of his
constituents. He goes there to dicker for them and to swap votes with
other Congressmen in exchanging Congressional concession for
Congressional concession. His constituents want a post-office in their
district, or a river deepened, or widened, or want a navy yard in their
state, and he is ready to vote for similar concessions to all other
Congressmen who will vote for the concessions his constituents require.
Every Congressman is mindful of the fact, and every time he returns home
he is reminded of the fact that he has not been sent to Congress for his
health, but for the health of his constituents, and if he hopes to be
returned, he must see to it that he gets what they have sent him after.
They have not sent him there to support an appropriation bill for a
larger army or a larger navy. The people are imbued with the belief that
the country as a whole is big enough and prosperous enough to be safe.
They know little or nothing, and care less, about national defenses. No
calamity has ever come upon us for lack of defenses. Why should they
worry? Also, they have been assured from the pulpit and the Chautauqua
and by circulars sent out by the peace societies that we not only do not
need more defenses, but, on the contrary, we do not need those we have;
and they are asked to write personal letters to their Congressmen urging
them to vote against any appropriations to increase our national
defenses.
I am not arguing for a large standing army, but merely for an adequate
army--an army big enough to intercept an invading army that might be
landed on our shores in the event of our Navy being destroyed or evaded.
The American people are imbued with the idea that a large standing army
is a menace to liberty. Whatever justification there may be for this
attitude, it is certain that, if we are to yield to this point of view,
and get along with a comparatively small effective army, it is
absolutely indispensable that we should have a navy certainly as
powerful as any in the world, with the single possible exception of that
of England. All arguments that may be made against a large standing army
become arguments in favor of a very large navy.
In view of the comparative weakness of our present Navy, we need an
effective army of at least a million men. If, however, our Navy were to
be brought to first rank and the Swiss system of military training in
public schools were to be adopted, we could get along with a much
smaller army. By the adoption of such a system, we should soon have a
very large trained reserve force in civil life, which could be drawn
upon in case of need. Assuming the adequacy of our Navy and coast
fortifications, General Wood believes that, if the Swiss system of
military training in public schools were to be adopted, we could get
along very well with a standing army of from 200,000 to 225,000 men.
A navy, however large, could not, by any possible stretch of the
imagination, be termed a menace to our liberties, and, as ex-Secretary
Meyer has said, we are rich enough to match dollars for national defense
with any other nation in the world.
It is common belief that military training and service in preparation
for national defense menace democratic institutions.
In the days of her greatest virility and military prowess, Rome was a
republic. But we must not conclude, because a country is governed by a
congress and a president elected by the people, that all its
institutions are more free or less autocratic than the institutions of a
limited monarchy, or even an absolute monarchy.
We, in the United States, often pass laws that are so arbitrary,
unprecedented, unwarranted, and confiscatory, as to make absolutism
wince. The cities of Germany are governed so wisely and so well that
could we have that system transplanted here, it would be almost worth
our while to invite German conquest of the country.
No man's patriotism rises higher than his realization of the need that
his country has for him. None of us likes our taxes any too well.
Nevertheless, they bring home to us a better realization of the
interdependence of the government and the individual.
We love those for whom we make sacrifices, and those to whom we give
favors. Benjamin Franklin desiring the favorable regard of a prominent
person, made it opportune for that eminent person to do Franklin a
favor.
Conscription, like that enforced in Germany, makes good citizens. It
implants in them a sense of duty and obligation to the government, and
creates a greater respect for ruling power and for law and order.
In this country, the ideas of the average individual concerning his
obligations to the government and the government's obligations to him
are vague and crude to the last degree. Conscription would largely
remedy this by teaching duty to the government.
The government has exactly the same right to levy on the individual for
military service as it has to tax him for anything else. Just as the
government has the right to tax the individual for financial support of
the government, so it has the right to tax the individual for military
support of the government. Conscription makes the government and the
individual partners for the common welfare. Few persons in this country
consider themselves partners of the government.
In ancient Sparta, all individuals were the property of the government;
all children were owned by the state. Consequently, the people owned the
state, and the state owned the people. It is proper that the state and
the individual should own each other, insomuch as their interests are
mutual, just the same as husband and wife own each other.
Perhaps the best system of preparing the youth and young men of a
country for military service is that practised in Switzerland.
Switzerland is a typical democracy, and yet no country in the world has
a more universal and efficient system of military training for its youth
and young men.
After the conclusion of the war of 1870, Germany, guided by the iron
will of Bismarck, divulged to Switzerland that the mailed fist had an
itching palm for Swiss territory. Immediately an army of a hundred
thousand Swiss mobilized on the frontier. They were the best-armed, the
best-trained, and altogether the most efficient soldiers in Europe.
Every man of them could shoot to kill. They were the flower of the
mountains. Bismarck concluded that the game was not worth the candle. If
Switzerland had not been armed to the teeth and ready, that country
to-day would be a part of Germany.
The Swiss have not the remotest idea of making an aggressive move on any
neighboring country, but they hold themselves in perfect readiness to
see to it that no other nation can find it profitable to make an
aggressive move on Switzerland.
Switzerland makes her military training a part of her school system. The
chubby, rosy-cheeked little Swiss boys are taught to play soldier with
wooden imitation guns, and as they grow, the training later becomes
more comprehensive, more exacting, more scientific, until, finally, the
young men find real guns in their hands, find themselves commanded by,
and receiving instructions from, real officers, and they are taught to
shoot. When their school training is over, their military training and
term of military service also are over. They are ready for civil life,
but, too, they are ready at any moment for the call of their country
from civil life to shoulder rifle and knapsack and go to the front.
This is the system that we should adopt in our country. It places no
burden upon the schoolboy or the young man; on the contrary, it is a
source of keen enjoyment, like any other manly game. The beneficial
psychological effect is simple: The youth is taught obedience, his
powers of perception are quickened, his alertness increased, his
physique greatly strengthened, his health benefited, and his personal
habits governed by laws of temperance and hygiene, with the result that
his efficiency for usefulness in all the business and affairs of civil
life afterward is greatly enhanced. Thus, in Switzerland, the earning
power of the population is increased out of all proportion to the cost
for the training and maintenance of the entire army.
Mr. Richard Stockton, Jr., in his book, "Peace Insurance," ably
expresses the value of military training, as follows:
* * * * *
"_Military training has an important value entirely apart from its
actual military value. This is conclusively proven in the numerous
military schools of the United States. The majority of these schools
disclaim any attempt to train soldiers, but include military training
merely to make better citizens. They find that the man trained
militarily learns obedience, promptness, cleanliness, orderliness,
coolness, and secures that priceless asset known as executive
ability--the ability to make others obey. Such schools form a stronger
character and make better men._
"_If this is true in a military school, it must be equally so with
similar training received elsewhere. If thousands of parents pay from
$500 to $1,500 per year to secure this training for their boys, surely
there is some gain to the nation in the men who receive this training in
the army. The fact is too well attested by educators throughout the
world to admit of serious questioning._"
* * * * *
It is possible that German militarism, by becoming absolutism, has grown
from servant to master in Germany. However this may be, one thing is
certain, that German progress in the industrial arts and sciences, in
municipal and general government economics, has made the German people
more efficient and potential per capita than the people of any other
country on earth. Consequently, we must admit either that the Germans
are inherently superior intellectually to the people of other nations,
or that they have acquired their present economic superiority by reason
of some procedure which they have followed, and with which other nations
have not kept pace.
The natural assumption is that militarism is responsible for the German
culture of efficiency. It is not an unreasonable conclusion, in view of
the evidence, that German militarism is the greatest school of economics
that the world has ever seen.