Evening star., 1898-08-06

| Hf3:{ tnal Such prepara-
!" !. !.
l. ton, in the European
| mn sense, has come to
/ = III MEI/L/ involve burdens al
| III Il MN1I/W most intolerable is a
W n fE#M// fact that wiR not be
| M ~ @FH ignored. France, at
| WM w the end of twenty
| VI II years extraordinary
effort, now begins to
/ show what race track
| FOLK call signs of distress" The pace has
been too hard for her 1t is no wonder. for
| the trouble lies even deeper than the mat
| ter of expense. The French people are not
| groaning under war taxation-that they are
| accustomed to-but under the severe con-
| scription laws which force all French
youths pitilessly into the great war mill of
the standing army. Reduce the term of
| military service!" cry the people. Three
years of our sons early lives is asking too
much of usr' And many deputies have
| just obtained election pledged to some such
measure. That all experts agree in deciar-
| ing the thing impracticable only serves to
| heighten the instructiveness of the con-
| troversy.
| The French standing army of today in
France, Algeria and Tunis is composed of
| an effectif budgetaire of 5iS, 600 non-com-
| missioned officers, corporals, brigadiers and
private soldiers. 1t is standing army.
substantial body, seemingly Unchanging
yet each year it grinds out thousands who
\ have dUne their service, as it grinds in
thousands who must do their service, and
| the point is never to grind in too few. In
1895 there were 246, 900 new men ground in,
| of whom only 10 per cent were what we
would call volunteers. The mass. composed
| or 224.oo0 young men just at their major
| ity, came to the flag the result of i'm
isri dtra1 lie L
| they had gone to jail. Never before had
| France produced SO considerable a defen-
siYe effort. and when the volunteers and
| re-enlisted non-commissioned officers are
taken account of, there would really seem
| at first sight to be place for years reduc-
| tion of the service.
How They're Made Up.
| This is how the calculation is made up
The voluntary enlistments of 1896, It is
| true, amounted to only 1900 men, but
some were to serve for three years. some
| for four years and some for five years. A
| two-years man while in service would
stand. therefore, for two conscripts;
| three-years man for three, and SO OH.
| Making due allowance for death and deser-
| ton, it has been calculated that the 22OO0
volunteers, as they may be expected to
| come in each year, will stand indefinitely
| for $1,000 conscripts, a thing of which the
I
| when to this number there are added the
| 1000 re-enlisted nom commissioned officers
| who stood upon the rolls in January 1893
/ it is seen that the paper calculations of
| the current three-year conscription may be
reduced by 5000 men. Instead of the
| budgetary army of $4,000. the conscrfp-
| ton really need call out, each three years,
only $4,000 men.
| The question is. of course. how are these
| 453. 900 men to be made up. Taking the
| 224. 900 new conscripts of the contingent OF
| 1896 average for future years, IL is
| Immediately clear that no oDe-year term
| of service can be dreamed of. The Ger
| man standing army already counts UP to
! BOP. 900 men. With an inferiority of 23T o03
| armed and equipped soldiers, France would
live continually under the menace of a
sudden aggression which might crush her
first few days resistance. There remains
the agitated question of the two years
service AS the conscription of 1896
amounted to ID, 900 men, twice this num-
| Der would almost make up the 4530O0 con-
scripts constantly required to be in the
French army, while a consistent three
| years service-did all really serve three
years-would show a really enormous
cess. 1t has never been contended that all
| conscripts should serve three years The
question now is should they all serve two
years? Some serve three years now, and
| some serve only one, and there has been a
cry against class privilege by those who
want all services to be of two years
| equally.
Two-Xear Plans Possibilities.
Undoubtedly the level two-years service
| plan would respond nearly enough to the
mere numerical exigencies of the standing
| army. The controversy rests, first, on the
| shifting of the burden from one set OF
shoulders to another. OF the whole num-
f! Der of conscripts forced out in 1896 14s,oe0
were called to three years service, 5000 to
two years service, while 65o00 were let off
with one years service. Those who must
serve three years are in the normal condf-
ton of having excuse of any kind why
they should not do three years service.
They net like the 1900 two-year men of
1896. who should have entered the army in
1895, but were not physically up to the
mark yet That year of waiting counted a
a year of service to them. Nor are they
like the 65,00O one-year conscripts, who
are made up of several different categories.
These are the eldest sons of widows, elder
brothers of orphans, brothers of volunteer
soldiers, indispensable family supporters.
physically backward youths, incorporated
only after two years adjournment Alge-
rians subject to only one years service and
finally-and to the number of 1000 only
young men let off with one year because of
their university studies.
1t is of the exemption of these young
men, destined to great public services
teaching. cults, the priesthoo science let
ters, arts, industry, commerce, agriculture
and the liberal professions" IS the law
puts it-that the complaint is made by the
agitators. To hear them you would think
that all the men let off with sae year
were the sons of wealthy bourgeois fami-
lies, who, to give their sons an easy time.
had placed them in the university The
fact is proclaimed as an index of the bour-
geois tendency to reserve for itseif all the
good things. Yet these young men do not
form sixtfeth of the number of the one
year service conscripts. Should they be
forced to two years service they would
not make up the deficit. In order that a
two years plan might work successfully
the military law would have to ask the eld-
est sons of widows, the family supporters
and all the rest. including 1.-THE adjourned,
OF weak physique. to step in for two years
instead of one.
Why They Are Languerous.
This fact is just being shown to the
French people. together with its explana-
tien That this explanation should have so
little effect on the mass of the people-who
still cfamor for the reduced term of service
lis the strongest indication of their pres
eaf 1ar f,.