The Globe-republican., 1897-10-07
THE WORLDS ARMIES.
WHAT GENERAL MILES SAW
IN EUROPE
Rassfo Hating Great Progress
nany's Soldiers tho Best Drilled and
6howiest - Good Words for Frances
Tfo0ps-Unclo Sans Soldiers.


Troops-Uncle Sans Soldiers.
LONDON, Oct General Nelson A
Miles, Mrs. Miles and aide de camp
Captain Maus, sailed for the Unite,
States on the American liEs steame
St. Louis to-day. having been in Eu
rope since May on tour OF miiitar,
observation. The general has in
spected everything of military interes
from the armies of the great power.
in field action down to balloons ani
BICYCLES" as he remarked. He ha.
looked over Notifications, barracks
camps and ordnance works of all
classea
In an interview before ne sailed,
General Miles said: ''When 1 left
Washington the war between Turkey
and Greece had assumed such proper.
tions that it looked as though the
neighboring provinces would be drawn
into it, and possibly one or two of the
great powers of Europe. No one real
lied at that time that Greece had as
sumed hostilities when she was wholly
unprepared for war, nor did anyone
anticipate that Turkey would in forty
five days mobilize a great army of 6OO,-
600 men. When arrived at Constan-
tinople an armistice had been declared
and war was practically over, al
though the armies have remained in
hostile attitudes and it has taken three
months to agree upon conditions OF
peace for a war that had been fought
in five weeks.
II have seen all the great armies of
Europe except the Spanish army and
II Spain should declare war against
the United States may possibly have
an opportunity of seeing that. OF
something over 1900, 600 men under
srms, have seen nearly 100000 in
barracks and in garrison and in field
maneuvers, besides nearly loo, Op0 men
engaged in the construction of war
material
'What have seen does not indicate
that the millennium is at hand, when
swords will be beaten into plough
shares There never was another time
in the history of the world when such
energy, ingenuity and wealth have
been devoted to war purposes. The
resources and industries of many peo-
Piles are largely devoted to maintain
ing large standing armies and forrnid-
able navies.
Fortunate are the people of the
United States that they are walled in
by two great oceans, yet this fact
would not warrant them in any other
policy than keeping reasonable per-
centage of the population fully equip
ped and instructed in modern appli-
ances and methods Of war.
Germany is one vast military camp.
1t is geographically in such position
that it is compelled to maintain a
great military force. On one side is Aus
tria, that they have overrun and France
that has been conquered and a part of
her territory taken away, by fighting
her wbsn she was at great disad-
vantage On the other side stands
the great Russian bear and between
these two Germany finds it necessary
to keep her powder dry The German
army is kept under rigid discipline, it
is we'll drilled, makes the finest ap-
pearance on parade, but its fighting
qualities are no better than the Eng
lish, Russian or French armies.
To the question as to whether the
United States, under its present mill
tary policy, would be able to cope
with a European power, General Miles
replied: I'm any population, it is esti-
mated, one man out of five is capable
Of bearing arms That would give "
IN army of IL, OOO, 900. Our people are
strong physically and generally intel
ligent and we'll Informed. Besides
that. each citizen is sovereign and
interested in the welfare
Of his government and serves volun-
tarily without being forced into service
by e military despotism We have many
of men still living who
have seen more war, participated in
more battles, than any man in Europe.
But it is another thing to equip an
army with modern appliances for the
defense of a coast where we would
have to use high power guns and mod.
ern projectiles, which it takes years to
construct, while small arms are not to
be made in a few days or even weeks.
Modern rifles are different from the
squirrel guns, which our revolution
ary fathers went to war. The range
of modern arms is very great and pro-
jectiies weigh 700 pounds to ton of
steel The rapidity of the rapid fire
machine guns, the Maxim and Calling,
is 400 to 600 shots a minute. Although
these are American inventions these
are largely used in the European serv-
ice."
A BRIDE ENDS HER LIFE