The morning call., 1892-08-29
WARFARE IN THE FUTURE.

PhilosOphic readers Of NJ Zoa's DE
bacle" reason that it paints the horrors of
war in SO lurd light that no nation will
have the temerity to 60 10 war hereafter.
AS to this, il may be remembered that NJ.
Zola's pictures OF the sufferings of the
soldiers are not more heartrending than
Smollett's pictures of the misery endured by
British sailors, and yet the English never
lost their love for naval warfare. But in
cidentally the gifted Frenchman really
gives some practical reasons why inter-
national warfare must be hereafter a farce
with wholesale massacTes by way of inter
ludes. And since the war which he
describes, science has so reyoluii0nIzed the
military art that the military annals of
the past supply no precedent for the scenes
which III odern war would bring forth.
Gunnery is now a fixed science The aim
OF artillery, and within a given range of
small arms, is reduced TO an absolute
certainty. Such q thing as missing the
target is impossible IL the gunners know
their business. Thus an attack in the open
against an entrenched foe would never be
attempted because every one Of the assail-
ants would be slaughtered before they
reached the entrenchments. Machine guns
sweep a field so clean that no one is left
standing. At the early battles Of the
Franco-German war, the French mitraileu-
ses simply wiped cut the German battalions,
and if Won Moltke had not had three to
one, so that be was always able TO flank the
French. he would have been beaten. The
new field pieces are aimed not by looking
at the target. but by study Of mirror close
TO the gun The elevation Of the piece and
the range of fhe projsctie are determined
Wi .bar,
comic sections. Given an army with such
pieces in position and q long sweep in front
of their works. general who attacked them
would simply lcse his force.
Again. the whole art of war has been
summed up in the maxim that to succeed a
general must have more men st the point of
contact than the enemy. There was where
the French were always at fault in 1870.
Their generals never knew where the enemy
was or how strong he was. Their scouts
were too few and too inefficient, whereas
the German Uhlans swarmed over the
country in such clouds that they always
knew where the masses of The French were
and how they could be fianked. The diff
Guilty OF accurate and reliable reconnois-
sances has been enorm onsly Increased by the
discovery OF smokeess powder. As rule.
in battle. the generals Of the past have
been guided by the sight OF powder
An experienced leader could distinguish by
the sight of the powder smoke whether it
was division or a corps that was adyan-
eng and what way lis line of march. Now
BODY OF troops can advance firing and if
they are partially under the cover of trees
or inequalities in the ground. tho enemy
cannot hgure out their strength. A general
may ind, after he Is engaged that on his
left or his right flank there is an army equal
IN strength to his own, and on whose pres
ence he had not counted
Finally, the inevitable size Of modern
armies is going to make it almost impossi-
oie Ior any one general to conduct battle
AT the battle OF Gettysburg some 15o, 900
men were engaged on both sides; at the
battle OF Waterloo about 10000. In a mod
efh war eacD general would try TO cnncen-
trate not less than 100000 men under his
command. No man, even with all vossbie
assistance from telegraph and telephone
wires, could direct such vast body of men,
The battle would resolve itself into a dozen
battles, each conducted without unity of
purpose by army or corps commanders. Ii
would be chaos in uniform-defeat in one
place. victory in another, and finally collapse
from exhaustion.
1t may be added that, In the absence Of
wars. no particular effort has been made TO
enlist electricity into the service OF combat
ants. Yet it is evident, even to the nom
military mind, that the destructive power
of electricity has never been tested, and
that ii must be enormous. 1t is easy to
eonjure up visions Of the simultaneous an.
initiation Of whole brigades by the power