, 1888-08-14
EURoPE's ARMED PEACE.
The Terrible Strain on the NatIons-Ths
Next War.

lho Ierrlble strain on the Nations-ThS
Next War.
The whole continent seems to be under
some horrible enchantment. The armed
peace sits like a vampire at the bedside
of the people, draining their life blood
while they sleep. Hence, say some, war
is certain. The nations cannot stand the
strain much longer. Sooner or later,
and one rather than later, they will
rush to war rather than wait to be slowly
sutfocated by the sheer weight of their
armor.
As the armed peace is a nightmare
fouler than the world has yet suffered, so
he next war is an appalling catastrophe
from which imagination sh~rinks-aghast.
For there is nothing in modern history
that it will resemble. Hitherto, down
even to the last wars, when empires have
gone to battle it has been a war of sol
diers. TIL next war will he a war of
peoples. In the Russo-Turkish war it was
an army framed on the old system which
was repulsed at Plevna, and ultimately
swept in triumph to Co%nstantinople. In
the Franco-G German war the French army
was largely professional, and it was be-
cause the standing army of professional
soldiers went down like ninepins before
the irresistible rush of an armed nation
thnt all military systems have been revo-
l%utionized. Now every nationhas armed
all its able bodied adults.
In former days the mastering of a half
million of soldiers was regarded as a
mighty feat. Today Prince Bismarck
adds to the ranks of the army of the
fatherland, with one stroke of his pen,
700, 900 fathers of families, and not
a single voice is raised even in passing
protest. Germany in the center of
Europe fronts east and west with an
available host of 5000, 900 trained SOL
diers. France will have between Q, OO0,-
900 and 5000, 900 ready to hand. Rus
STA before long will be able tt put 8, OOO,-
900 into line. Austria and Italy we need
not count The blast of the trumpets
that proclaims the beginning of war will
summon the manhood of Europe to the
work Of slaughter.
Not only will the number of the com
batants be far beyond those which were
raised even in the days of the First Ma
poleon-the grand army with which he
crossed the frontier on his march to
Moscow only consisted of the same num-
Der of men that has been added this year
to the German army-but the spirit in
which it will be brought out will differ
for the worse. Prince Bismarck has
frankly told us what kind of war it will
be. We shall fight, he said, if we do
fight, until we are bled as white as veal.
1t will be a duel to the death-a war in
which the avowed object Of the COM
batants is the utter destruction of their
adversary.
''Saigner a blanc, - to drain the very
1tFa I1l,I - ,,,- ,,,-,r 18TH .~.,, 1a,-o
his carcass as white as that of the calf
from which the butcher seeks to drain
every ruddy drop Of gore-that is the
declared ideal of the foremost nation of
the continent in the year of grace 1888.
The imagination refuses to picture what
it means. All our recent wars were
short. The longest was that of the Cri-
mea, which was little more than the
siege and the defense of a single fortress
by professional soldiers. The Franco
Italian war was almost an affair Of
weeks. The Danish war was over al
most before it began. The Austro-Prus
sian-Italian war lasted just six weeks.
The Franco German war was over in six
months. The conquest of Turkey was
completed in abou the same time.
But the next war will not be over in
six weeks or six months. To bleed each
other white, when both combatants are
pretty well matched, and when there are
millions of men in reserve, is an affair
of years. But when all the business ia
suspended, and the reapers have been
summoned from the farm to the battle
fields, it will be impossible to carry IN
war on this scale for years without utter
collape and CHASTITY famine. Hence the
embattled millions will fight with the
grim and desperate energy Of men who
know that, like Judas, what they do
they must do quickly. They will strike
terror. All the tourney rules of civil
lied war will be IN danger Of going by
the board. 1t will be n contest Of titans
waged with the ruthlessness of fiends.
The next war will be in danger of de
generating into the Nineteenth century
version of the horrors of the thirty years
war, ON "A scale far more gigantic, and
therefore characterized by crimcs far
more colossal. Pail Mali Gazette.