The Red Cloud chief., 1897-10-08
ON EUROPEAN ARMIES
GENERAL MILES GIVES HIS
OBSERVATIONS


LoNHON M I-bcnCrul nelson n
Miles, Mrs Mile, and aide do camp,
Captain Maus, sailed for the United
States on the American line steamer
St. Louis to-day, having been In Eu-
rope since May on n tour OF military
observation. The general has i'm
spectcd everything Of military interest
from tho armies of Inc great powers
In H., Il action down to balloons and
bicycles" as he remarked. He has
looked over Notifications. barracks.
camps and ordnance works of all
classes
In an interview before ne sailed,
General Miles said: when I left
Washington the war between Turkey
and Greece had assumed such proper
tions that IL looked as though the
neighboring provinces would DO drawn
into IL, and possibly one or two of the
grent powers OF Europe. No one real
izcd at that time that Greece had as
sumcd hostilitics when she was wholly
unprcpared for war, nor did anyone
antic pate that Turkey would in forty
five days mobilize a great army Of CO.,.
600 men. When | arrived at Constan-
tinople an armisticc had been declared
and war vas practically over, al
though tho armies have remained in
hostile attitudes and it has taken three
months to agree upon conditions of
peace for o war that had been fought
In five weeks.
EUROPE A GREAT ARMED CAMP.
II have seen all the great armies 81
Europe except the Spanish army and
IL Spain should declare war against
the United States l may possibly have
N opportunity Of seeing that. OF
something over 5000, 900 men under
srms, l have seen nearly 400, 900 In
barracks and In garrison and In field
maneuvers, besides nearly 100, 900 men
engaged In the construction Of war
material,
What l have seen does not indicate
that the millennium is at hand, when
swords will be beaten into plough.
sharea' 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 poo.
pies are largely devoted to maintain
ing large standing armies and formid.
able navics.
AMERICA MUST BE IN TRIM.
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 n reasonable per-
centage OF the population fully equip
ped and instructed In modern appli.
ances and methods OF war.
1T so happened that important
events occurring in Europe this year
have contributed to my opportunity
for observation, giving mo chances TO
SEQ the best OF the armies Of all the
great powers. The cele LIBERATION of
Queen Victorin's sixty years OF reign
brought together 5000 of her army
and 8 1000 men of her navy. The field
maneuvers In Russia were conducted
on a large scale and were exceedingly
interesting. Russia for hundreds of
years has been q great military ma
tion. Her people have been accus.
toned to war and her population is SO
numerous and she Is so located geo
graphically rs To be practically indie
pendent OF the other powers Of the
world. Though her government has
been autocrntic and her people far be-.
hind the age in enlightcnment-only 5
per cent OF the population being able
70 read rays of intellectual en-
lightenment are penetrating that vas,
region and there is a great future for
Russia.
POWER OF THIS COUNTRY.
To the question as to whether the
United States, under its present mill.
tsry policy, would be able To COPE
with q European power, General Miles
replied: In any population, it is csti.
mated, one man out of five Is capable
OF bearing arms. That would give us
an army Of 10, ZOO, 900. Our people mr.,
strong physically and generally intel.
iigent and we'll informed. Besides
THAT each citizen is n sovereign and
personally interested in the welfare
OF his government and serves volup.
tarily without being forced into service
by q military despotism. We have many
thousands Of men still living who
have seen more war, participated IN
more battles, than any man in Europe.
But 1t is another thing to equip an
army with modern appliances for the
defense OF u coast where we would
have to use high power guns and mod.
ern projectilcs, which 1t 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
squire l guns, which our revolution.
sry fathers went to wal. The range
OF modern arms Is very great and pro,
jectties weig.. 700 pounds to a ton OF
steel The rapidity Of the rapid fire
machine guns. the Maxim and Calling,
10 400 to 600 shots a minute. Although
these are American inventions these
are largely used in the European serv.