The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-04-03
UNITED AMERICA.
Western Republics Could Form an
Irresistible Combination.
Nearly a Million Armed Men
Ready For Mobilization.

aud militia, against the COZ, 900 regu-
lar, reserved and auxiliary forces
which the United Kingdom of Great
Britain has stationed in England, In-
dia aud the colonies Without add.
ing single man, volunteering or
drafted, this side Of the water thus
appears to have the advantage OF
numbers, AZ far as the now organized
land force is concerned.
Chile has a standing army about
'one-quarter the size Of ours and
National Guard Of over 90 900 men.
All Of theso are armed with small cali
Der rifles. Argentina maintains a
standing army one-third the size Of
ours, but she has a tremendous Ma
tional Guard, numbering 3O4, OO0--
almost three times the size of our or
gained militia, says the Washington
correspondent of the Boston Trans-
cript She has only lately equipped
herself with the most modern fire.
arms Her forces alone, if added to
ours, would make an army Of almost
half million. Peru, although with
smaller force, has likewise pro-
cured modern rifles, not forgetting
her recent defeat by Chile.
One great disadvantage under
which We would suffer, il joined with
the sister republics against the United
Kingdom, is the lack Of uniformity Of
arms. Each of the South and Gen.
tral American States has it's character
istic arm and many doubtless carry
variety of patterns. Suppose all Of
the United States, Central and South
America were concentrated for war.
About twenty-five magazine factories
might be require to operate night and
day making that many sizes of car
tridges. Each nationality would be
disabled without its special brand of
ammunition, because It could not bor-
row from a neighboring army using a
different shell. Great Britain's in-
-fantry is equipped with rifle which
will repeat eleven shots. The whole
army can be supplied from one fac.
tory and one regiment can obtain
new supply of cartridges from any
other.
: Great Britain has Sc armored ships
In service we have but 30. She is
building IA; we but 10. She has in
addition 1873 unarmored ships avail
able; we but AZ. She is building %
new vessels Of this class while we are
builing 8. In other words Great Brit
ain has over four times as m any ships
ready for war as we have, and is still
building over twice as many as we
are. The republics of Central and
South America could furnish us about
200 ships, which when added to ours,
will form feet still smaller than that
of Great Britain. But John Bull
cannot spare all of his fleets from for
eign waters, for fear of Russia and
France.
= Brazil's navy consists of nineteen
vessels, seven of which are armored.
Only two of these are battleships, the
largeot having displacement of 200
tons and an armor belt eleven inches
thick. Besides these, Brazil has
twenty-five torpedo boats. She is also
building eleven new naval vessels, -four
of which are to be ironclads. Argen-
tina has seventeen ships in her navy,
five of which are armored, besides
twenty-one torpedo boats. Her largest
vessel has a displacement of 4, 200 tons
and an armor belt of nine inches
Chile can add to this eleven vessel
and twenty-five torpedo boats. He
largest is battleship of 300 tons
with a twelve inch belt. Uruguay Cal
lend ten vessels, three of which ar
Gunboats. The navies of the remain
ing republics of Central and Soutl
America are very insignificant as in
,dividuals, but if concentrated. woul
make quite a large feet to act as com
merce destroyers.
With this combined navy Uncl
Sam could at least defend his princi
pal seaports, It is thought that thi
task would be easy with such power
full aids as the ram Katardin and til