The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1896-10-29
MODERN WARFARE.
a Single Encounter VI uId Probably Dc.
eide the Issue.

Summing up tho whole question,
as between any two European peace
trained armies of the present day,
the extreme percentage of loss to be
anticipated locally. c., on particu-
lar brigades and divisions-will not
| exceed one in three (of which one is
killed to four wounded), whereas
for whole armies of $50, 600 and over
one in' ten is the very outside pun
lshment we may reasonably expect.
Compared to the slaughter of the
seven years war and the best con-
tested fields Of the Napoleonic peri
cd, this is very little indeed. At
Zorndorf the Russians left $1,000
out of $4,000 on the ground, and,
though this is undoubtedly the
bloodiest battle recorded since the
introduction of portable firearms,
Eylau, Friedland, Wagram and Boro-
dino all exceed the figures for any
pitched battle since the breechload-
er appeared in the field. Moreover,
the horror OF the whole thing is not
to be measured by figures of per-
cottages only, but by the density in
which the killed and wounded lie,
and the fate of the latter afterward.
In a modern battle 20, 900 men would
fall On an area of about 20 square
miles. At Zorndorf the 81, 900 Rus
slams and IL, 200 Prussians lay on a
single square mile, and of the wound
ed not one in three survived, where
as, in 1870, nine out of ten recover
ed. and the Prussian medical staff
anticipate even better results next
time.
But death on the battlefield is by
far the least OF the two evils the sol.
der has to face. There is death on
the line of march and in hospitals
along the road. Whereas formerly,
particularly under Napoleon, ten
would die by the way for one who
fell in action. In the last Franco
German war only one man died of
disease for two killed in action. In
deed, the health Of men in the full
prime of life was actually slightly
better in the field than in quarters.
1t may, however, be argued that,
even granted that battles and march
es may be less destructive, there
will be more of them, because, every
ablebodied man being trained for
war, the resistance will be more pro-
longed than formerly, but this pro-
longed endurance is only conceiva-
bic under the supposition that the
leaders on both sides are hopelessly
incompetent, and both fear to stake
all on single collision, a suppose
ton that nothing tends to justify.
On the contrary, every leader
brought up in the modern school is
taught to understand the vulnerable
ity of all modern military organiza-
tiOns and is penetrated with the con-
viction that one downright knock
out blow effects more than weeks
of purposeless sparring, and where
both start determined to bring mat
tiers to climax the decision cannot
long be delayed. Judging from what
we know of the relative efficiency of
continental armies, we believe that
the first round of the great encoun-
ter will also be the last, for the mo-
mentum of the blow which decides
will simply paralyze every nerve of
the opponents body, and, adding up
all sources of casualties that can &C.
cur in a short campaign of this de-
scription, we conclude that at the
very worst the actual cost in human
life to the powers engaged will not
amount to more than per cent of
their several populations, or almost
identically the same percentage as
the influenza epidemic of 1912 cost
Germany, and rather less than the
same epidemic cost us. To suppose
that this degree of blood outlines
would chain the wills of any respon-
sible body of statesmen who believed
that they were acting in the inter-
ests of their country is surely too
Utopian an idea for profitable dis
cussion. Pail Mall Gazette.
Dog and Telegraph.