The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-05-28
THEY TALK OF HIS SANITY.
Disappointed Prophets Of ,Efil NowI
Croak obviously Of Viii i
liam's Mind.
Germanys Ruler Devoting Himself
Largely to Problems Of
Peace, Not War.
Changes Which the Introduction of Smoke
less Powder Has Made in Mill
tary Tactics.

When the German emperor came to the
throne all the congregation of press
prophets shouted with one accord that ne
was bent upon war and that Immediately,
says the New York Sun. War did not come,
but a congress for the discussion OF the
workingman's needs was held in Berlin, at
which the alleged frebrand kaiser labored
as hard as the most enthusiastic of the
delegates. At this unexpected conduct there
was no other course open to the disappolnt-
ed professional prophets but to forthwith
cable to the ends of the earth that fears
were entertained for the emperor's sanity,
and that general disarmament was to be
looked for. Neither view has any founda-
ton and reflects but the dislike of all things
German prevailing in England, dislike
that is no greater than the Englishman's
ignorance of Germany.
We have good reason for holding the view
that Germany has no idea of reducing her
military establishment by single battery
or battalion, at least if the emperor knows
his own mind. The most unpopular man
in Germany tomorrow would be the one to
propose weakening of Germany's lighting
forces. Not that Germans love to pay war
taxes or desire to encourage the false no
tions of personal merit that are fostered by
large military caste, but every child of the
Fatherland believes that a material and po-
litical development of his country is
directly product of the nations power
to protect herself against any two OF ne her
posed to quarrel with his war budget than
we with the cost of an efficient police force.
Where will it all end is question often and
seriously asked, not merely by liberals in pol
itics, but also by men near the throne, and
IL 4 net, 20
No one can tell just now. Some must go
into bankruptcy soon, but the German phil
osophically reflects that he can stand the
pressure better than any of his neighbors,
and is therefore perfectly ready to let the
emperor go ahead full steam and risk the
consequences. 4.s
If there is one point on which the gov
eminent may be expected to relax its
pitiless demands in matters military
It is that of reducing the time of service
from thrt g to two years, though even this
reasonable request sdoes not meet with
even at the hands Of the constitutional frei
sinnige party. The volksparty or radicals
are its champions, and there is reason for
thinking that they will gain strength for
their motion as the session proceeds.
Many members to-day carefully abstain
measures until Caprivi has disclosed more
fully his intention and such as may IN a
few weeks support the two years. service
bill now decline to take stand on the
subject, particularly as the introduction OF
smokeless powder has raised new questions
regarding the instruction necessary on the
part of the soldier.
The war minister, Duvernols. is credited
with opposition to the reduction of military
service, but if such is the case it is prob
ably for the sake of gaining time and draw
ing out information on the subject from
competent authorities. The matter is a
new one. The war minister himself is new
to his office: so is Waldersee, the chief of
staff; SO is the prime minister, Caprivi, and
SO, above ALL is this bugaboO of smokeless
powder. When it becomes better understood
It will be seen that, as with torpedo boats.
it has added but little to the terrors of war;
that men have rapidly adjusted themselves
to the new conditions, and war is very
much to-day as it has been for thirty years.
During three manBuvers in Germany held
last year, covering about two weeks of con-
tinuous fighting, largely with smokeless
powder, the practical observer, without being
necessarily a professional soldier, must have
drawn the conclusion that now, at last, we
have such a state of things to meet as our
savages would have solved had their arrows
dred. Heretofore the European soldier has
had but the most rudime ntary knowlsdge of
sharp-shooting, his firing being necessarily
directed against masses Of smoke and
not against individuals. Our revolution
airy war first called into being the art
of slsirmish fire that Napoleon the First
used SO effectively, and our civil war prac-
tically abolished the massing of infantry
under fire in the absence of that merciful
veil of smoke that has heretofore encour-
aged soldiers to approach the other lines
without realizing the danger that they
day see the full risk he is running and will
run himself if his officers do not. Take an
other lesson from America. The supreme
task of an officer to-day is not merely to
have his troops march with precision, but
to teach them to keep cool under fire, to
and to pick off their individual man: in
other words, to do what the average Ameri-
can boy who owns a gun would do by in
stinct were he put into the ranks of the
army.
The German emperor has read the Cen
fury war book, and knows the individual
battles of our struggle as we'll as any officer
in our service, and if it can be made clear to
him that the German can in two years ac-
complish all that is necessary to be a good
soldier, there is every reason to believe that
on economic and social grounds herwill
as he knows that Scharnhorst and .Gheise-
nau held two years to be long enough serv-
ice for the soldiers that fought in thesgreat
wars against Napoleon.
SmOkeless powder, we may conclude, will
place greater responsibilities upon the Off
Ger than heretofore, and make the scientific
branches of the service more important
than ever. particularly the railway and tel
egraph for fighting lines will be longer and
thinner than ever, and the Importance of
rapid communication between distant
points more than ever necessary. If this
view is accepted in Germany, there seems
ground for holding that the battle cry of
parliamentary reformers will be from now
on not exactly free trade and sailors rights,
but tariff reduction and soldiers rights, for
the liberals have promptly introduced the
tariff measures of which you were informed
some days before parliament met.
Bismarck still lives, thanks to newspa-
per in Hamburg which is regarded as his
organ. He remains very bitter against the
emperor, for whom he once promised to
draw his dying breath. But of late he has
been so busy in receiving and weighing
most fattering offers from nearly every pub
fishing house in the civilized world to put
his memoirs in book form. that he has had
little time for anything else. Not maya
zine but has made him princely offers Tor an
article from his pen. And Minister Phelps
is besieged with applications for an intro
ductlon to the retired chancellor.