Evening star., 1898-11-18
THE ARMY OF FRANCE.
After All It is strong and Noble
Organization.

From the Chicago Times Herald
The French army, to save whose honor
human beings are crushed like ants aud
justice smitten in the face. is really a no
bic organization, notwithstanding the cor
ruption that may exist among some Of its
superior officers The army is organized
on laws passed by the national assembly
of 1872. These have been modified, enlarged
and adjusted by additional laws voted by
various legislatures from 1873 to 1892. To
understand the very deep concern that is
felt about the army by the French peo-
plea concern similar to ours about the
Volunteers-one need only remember that
by law there is univ Versai liability to arms,
and that substitution or enlistment by pay
ment of money is forbidden. Any French
citizen between the ages of twenty and
torty-tve who has not been pronounced
unfit for military service may be called
upon at any time to become a soldier, eith-
er ia the active service or in the reserves.
Thus il will be seen how personal a mat
ter the military becomes for every French
man.
There is a law Qss9. supplemented by
later laws, providing that the yearly con-
tngent must serve three years in the active
service, ten in the reserve pertinent army
to the regular army, six in the territorial
reserve. The army in active service is
made up of all the young men-'the
flower of FTance''-whO have reached the
age of twenty. The reserve that Is held
Immediately behind this active army con-
sists OF the men who have served out their
time in the active army. These two branch
es of the French army-that is, the actiyes
and the active reserves-are drawn from
over the whole Of France and are distrib-
uted over the whole of France. The terri
torial army and its reserves, however, are
assigned to iocations fixed by the admiuts-
tration from time to time.
The budget for the present year shows
that the peace strength Of the French
army amounts to 546,O44 men. OF this to-
tai number. % 402 are officers. These fig
ures describe the home army alone and
mean that the nation has that many men
at hand in France. The army I'm Algiers
consists of - 9l1 men, of whom 2,l9I are
officers and the army in Tunis consists of
Il, 45S men, of whom j12 are officers. Add
the number of the home army to that Of
the army abroad and the total Will he 6la,-
Alb, of whom ~ l5l officers. Including
all the departments the French army has
142. .G3S horses in its serve. If France were
called upon To engage in war with any
European nation at this time she would
be ready to put into the field 34l,o2O Tor lhe
active army alone and % 40 for the gend-
armerie and the republican guards Ihat
is a pretty good fighting force to throw
into action at once. We thought we were
doing capitaily by raising our blg vol
unteer army in the Spanish war but had
our enemy been France instead OF Spain,
what another story we would be telling
now. France, back OF her superb army
has a grand store of men to draw on. The
number of men liable to military service 10
France is estimated thus: The active army
and its reserves, all well trained soldiers
> 800 900; the territorial army (active), S",-
OuO: the territorial reserves 1,1Oo,OO. These
give grand total of i,3Jo,oo0. Such tre-
mendous force as this would not OF course
be available at once But if France were
called upon to put forth its best military
strength quickly she could bring into action
with no trouble whatever an army or at
least $4,000 men.