The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-09-19
VOLUNTEERS IN MODERN WAR.

= ENERAL WHEELER'S recent statement
I that the United States must have larger
- force than present of thoroughly trained
professional soldiers to do is fighting has added
strength to the growing demand for an increase
of the regular army and for even greater proper
tionate enlargement OF the staff The experience of
the short with Spain to have been conclu-
sive the subject, and there is very little in the
way of argument to be heard on the other side
The authority OF General Wheeler as an expert on
military matters is well established, nor can he be
justly charged with prejudice the side of the regu
lars. 1t is true that he trained at West Point
and has been educated to look upon war problems
from the standpoint of professional soldier. On
the other hand, however his whole military service
has been that OF commanding volunteers Both in
the Civil War and in the Santiago campaign his
troops have been of that class. He has therefore
close affiliations with volunteers and is not likely to
underrate their soldery qualities or misjudge their
capacity for downright hard fighting.
As matter of fact in what Wheeler and others
have urged as arguments for larger regular army
there is nothing disparaging to either the courage,
the endurance the loyalty of the volunteers The
point is that war in these days has become a
science which must be learned by study and by prac-
tice. 1t is not the natural method of fighting which
is instructive in the brave but matter of tactics and
skill which it takes time and training to acquire
An illustration of one defect in the volunteer is
given in a criticism Of the campaign around San
tiago by a British officer who detailed by his
Government to observe it. AS this officer being
foreigner, writes critically than our own Off
GERS would like to do his words are worth consdera-
ton He that the losses of the Americans in
battle the day of the hardest fighting were much
larger than they should have been and that the
was the impotence of Roosevelt and his Rough
Riders to charge the enemy at once.
The critic maintains that Roosevelt should have
held his back until the force sent to flank the
Spanish position had turned the wings and got an
enhlading fire the center Had that course been
followed the British observer of the fight is sangune
the Spanards would have been forced to retreat and
we would have captured their lines with a much
smaller loss of officers and men than we actually suf-
fered.
fearful demonstration of the evil consequences of
excessive vaor in in these days was given in the
slaughter of the daring Dervshes by the British force
under General Kitchener in the battles in the
Soudan Our brave volunteers escaped lightly in the
war with Spain, but they confronted by really
dangerous foe attempt to rush things would be
terribly disastrous
Among the defects of volunteer forces, therefore.
may be included over-confdence in sheer vaor
alike to distinguish themselves This, taken TO-
gether with a lack of understanding of the comp-
Gated ornaments of the age and failure to appre-
cate the advantage of tactics exposes volunteers to
heavy losses. 1t is therefore economy of life as
well as OF money to provide professional soldiers for
purposes, and since that we arc to have