The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-06-16
WAR TAKES TIME.
Use Your Common Sense and Quit
Grumbling...

(Army and.Navy Gazette, London
1t is mistake to prophesy before you
know, but we should think that it would
be five months rather than.five days be-
fore the United States authorities could
provide adeq uate transport for an army
of so, COO men, horse, foot and artillery,
and every kind of necessary.
Some of the writers of articles in
Army and Navy Journal, New York, on
the invasion of Cuba appear to think that
landing 30, 600 men on the shores of Cuba
with necessary equipment and supplies is
no more of a feat than passing the same
number of people over a ferry or across
the Brooklyn bridge. It required fleet
of forty vessels to carry an expedition of
$4,000 men to attack Port Royal in the
early days of our Civil War and many
weeks of preparation before the expedition
was ready to sail Among the tran sports
were ocean liners Of that day carrying or
capable of carrying, an entire regiment,
such as the Baltic, Atlanta, Illinois,
Coatzacoallcos. Governor. Daniel Webster,
Vanderbilt. Ericsson, Ariel and the Great
Republic sailing vessel, q monarch of
that day. The distance Is no less from
Tampa to the Cuban coast, end 1t will be
found no small task to convey across it
$4,000 men with guns, horses ammuni.
tfon and supplies Of all kinds. The Diff
Guilty we shall find in invading other
countries will help to reassure us at the
prospect that some irate foreign power
may seek to violate our shores. 1t is no
task any nation will lightly undertake,
for it requires combination of military
and naval strength which will tax the
energies of the greatest of powers or a
syndicate Of powers.
(Rev. DR.. A. ]. f. Bshrends of Brook
lynn
1t is really amazing what an amount of
military and naval genius the country
possesses. There Is no end of critics, who
can hardly contain themselves because
those In charge seem to them to be slow
and vacillating. They want generals and
trails removed, unless they will make
an end of the feet and invade Cuba at
once. They seem to imagine that raw
recruits can be uniformed and equipped
In day, drilled in a week. and rout the
whole Spanish army in thirty days. 10
feed and shelter 100000 men seems to
them holiday task. They speak with
supreme disdain of the tropical heats and
the dangers of the Cuban climate in the
rainy seasons. If some of these men had
their way Cuba would have been con-
verified into slaughter house and grave.
yard for soldiers. They imagine that q
fest can be located in the Caribbean Sea
as easily as horse car can be seen in a
ten acre lot. One thing is plain, these
men have never read history of naval war
fare and how easy 1t is to hide on the
ocean, how hard to find and run down
your enemy. And it is not an easy thing
to convert crowd of volunteers into an
effective fighting machine. 1t takes
time and patience and skill of the highest
order. Bravery without discipline of ths
severest type does not count for very
much in war. The volunteer has every
thing to learn, from the cooking of his
food to the handling of his gun. Three
months of daily drilling is needed to
whip him into shape. Meantime, he
must be toughened to endure the hard
ships OF the camp and of the march. War
Is awful business. 1t is not holiday
picnic, and the most ardent patriot finds
that soldiers life is not an easy one.
NOR, as a rule, do our young men take
KINDLY to rigorous discipline. Military
life seems despotic and cruel and pro-
vokes the spirit of mutiny. But the ono
virtue OF soldier is obediences, and to
that the average American has no great
liking. He can learn it; he has learned
1T; thousands are learning it now, at
Alger and Chickamauga and Tampa; but
the lesson Is not learned without a strug-
gle. The nations of Europe can mobilize
great fighting armies in a week and
have them on the march. But they get
ready for war In time of peace. We
declare war and then are compelled to
get ready for it. If we will only stop to
think, we shall not demand the impossi-
bic. The pressure upon our military and
naval officers, upon tho President and his
cabinet, Is terrific. 1t is sapping theil
life. Thety are doing all that mortal
man can do. Give them time Trust
them in the present emergency Give
them free hand. They understand the
situation better than we do; they are as
anxious as any of us possibly can be to
make an early end of the war; let us
yield to their judgment in the conduct of
it,