The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-03-29
THE ASCENDANCY OF THE SOL
 DIERS.

There is a new and very grave fact in
 modern politics to which we are con
 vinced that English politicians, and es- pecially English journalists, do not at l tach sufficient importance, and that is | the powerlessness of the people against | the soldiers There is traditionary be- l lief derived from the experience of the l early years of the century, that if the people of a city or of state are dis contented enough to riot, there is dan ger of the government being overturn- ed whereas unless the government is weak, or has lost the confidence of it's soldiers, there is no danger whatever. The conditions of insurTectionary war fare have been changing for thirty years, and all the changes have tended to diminish popular power.
 In the first place, universal service has gutted the populace--we are not
 using this word in invidiam, but to ex-
 clude the older and more conservative
 citizens--of it's best fighting resource,
 the men between eighteen and twenty
 seven. All of these are either in bar
 racks or in the active reserves--that is,
 are actually soldiers with uniforms and
 uHuGI ulSCipllHe, dCCuStolIlct lO IIHpliGIA
 obedience, and on the continent taught
 plainly that they may have to act
 against their relative and friends as
 against external enemies
 In the second place, all the remain
 der of the physically competent, the men
 between twenty-seven and forty, have
 been through the military mill, have
 learned to know how powerless they are
 without officers or supplies against reg
 ular troops, and have acquired a feel
 ing about officers compounded of awe
 and liking which is never quite re-
 moved A French or Italian crowd,
 however furious. will part to give a
 general path, and some years ago an
 officer in Berlin dispersed a crowd which threatened some urban landlords
 by merely shouting words of command to them from balcony. The artisans who were raging below could not re- sist the impulse to form" march, and "halt' when they heard the well known formulas.
 And, in, the third place, the populace has no machinery. Formerly, if they could only obtain muskets, and bikes, and little powder, from the armorers' shops, which somehow they always did obtain, they could cast bullets for them selves, and behind a barricade of paw ing stones they were liked militia in fortress, not well drilled, but not at all easy to subdue. Now heavy battery would knock the barricade to pieces, and then the Maxims and repeat ing rifles, perpetdally resupplied from stores which only governments have at command, would pour out death in showers, the insurgents would fall in great swathes as the Dervishes did at Omdurman, and, as the retreat into houses is open to them, would rapidly disappear. A crowd can no more re- sist modern regiment in the open than a cheese can resist knife. No doubt, if the people are exasperated enough to continue firing from the houses there will be much loss inflicted on the troops but experience shows that this form of attack maddens soldiers, and that the resulting massacre cows men who however brave, have never fought be- fore with women and children scream ing, clinging, or flying all around them London Spectator.