The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-04-01
Secretary Trueblood's Lecture Last
Evening.
DEMORALIZING EFFECTS OF MILL
TARY SYSTEMS.
The Stamina of the People of Europe
is Being Slapped by the Excesses of
Barrack Life-Startling Statistics
About Old World Armies.


Trueblood, of the National Peace Asso-
citation of America, at the Friends
church last evening, was a most interest
ing description of the nature and effects
Of the military system of modern Eu-
rope.
Mr.. j. J. Frye presided, and introduced
Secretary Trueblood, who began by say
ing that the peace movement is rapidly
becoming one of the greatest of the time
and is even spoken of as the peace re-
form movement. We are to consider
this evening the military condition of the
nations of Europe. We shall not consid
er this subject from an entirely econo-
mic, social, or even religious standpoint,
but rather consider the facts. All can
then apply the moral lessons. Christians
have generally looked upon war with es-
pecial reference to its results, but the
world is beginning to look on it as it is
going on, with all it's barbarity and i'm
morality. Good men have gone to war,
but Christianity does not approve of war.
War is fundamentally and radically
wrong.
am not going to take you tonight to
the horrors of the battlefield, but rather
show you some of the results of the
present system of standing armies. The
first thing that strikes an American in
Europe is the omnipresence of the sol
dier. We rarely see regular soldiers in
this country, and it is even difficult for
us to keep up our militia. Of our $4,000
regular soldiers, only about 10000 are
native Americans.
In the Old World we come to new at
mosphere. AS we land at Genoa, or Liv-
erpool, or Bremen, or Hamburg, there is
the soldier, pacing his beat, erect as
statue,
There is really no way Of estimating
the number of soldiers of the standing
armies in Europe. We say there are
$4,000. 900 Men,
but we cannot get any adequate concep-
ton of this immense number. In Paris
alone there are 100000 soldiers. Their
great stone barracks are among the most
prominent buildings. In the smaller
cities and through the country soldiers
are found everywhere. France has in
her actual standing army about 100000
soldiers under arms. But France has
reserve force behind this of more than
million men. They have their arms and
uniforms and are liable to be called out
in "a hours.
But this is not all. Behind these she
has two and one-half millions of re-
serves who have served three years and
now have retired to the class of citizen
soldiery.
Germany has not so many soldiers,
probably only about 100000 men. But
back of these she has larger reserve,
about 10000 men, and back of this she
has about 100000 who have served
their three years. Germany has more
reserves than France, because she has
had the conscription system longer.
Pass into Italy, poor country with
exhausted soil, and we find that
she has about 2, 100000 men in her three
branches of standing army reserves and
citizen soldiery. Yet her people are in
some instances SO poor that they have to
live on Cruel; and are afflicted with dis
ease which results from this diet
In Austria we find from three to four
millions of soldiers.
Pass thence into Russia and we find
from 100000 to 5000 men in the stand
ing army. Besides, every citizen is liable
to be conscripted at the beck of the
Czar.
England has a quarter OF million
soldiers, and navy of 300 or 400 vessels
that dominate every sea.
In Switzerland there are 200, 900 citizen
soldiers, and they are building great for
tifcations to defend their passes. ssSSs
Belgium and Holland also have their
armies.
Thus we come to round total of about
5000. 600 soldiers. The number has in
creased nearly one half in ten years, and
if the conscription system continues there
will be
Thirty or Forty Million Soldiers.
in Europe in a few years.
If in this country we had as many
soldiers in proportion to our population
as they have in Europe, we should have
10,OO0,000 men under arms.
To pass to the equipment of these
soldiers, we find them armed with the
best machines that science and art can
produce.
The speaker here displayed several
DullebS SuCu DIS tsI0 lIOu from UIl6 luOu6Tn
Lebel rife of France. These bullets, or
rather slugs, are about an inch long and
hardly more than three-eights of an inch
in diameter. They are made of steel
bronze and nickel, so mingled as to be
practically indestructibIe. The speaker
had two that had been shot into a stone
wall in target practice in France. A lead
bullet would have been flattened; but the
point of these missiles was barely dented
These bullets are fired from short
light rifle, hardly heavier than boys
plaything. Yet it shoots from ten to
twenty of these bullets minute, and
with force that will kill a man at two
miles, and at ordinary range go through
ten men in succession.
These rifles use powder thatis almost
entirely smokeless, and almost noise
less.
The only opportunity for testing prac-
tically this rifle has been in the recent
French
Campaign in Dahomey.
The blacks were simply moved down,
and when they fled to forest to take
refuge behind trees, these bullets pierced
large trees and killed the men behind