La Junta tribune., 1899-02-11
The Fr..eh omcer.

One Of the features which make the
French army corps SO terrible weap-
on Of attack. when properly handled,
fs the large number of non-commis-
stoned officers who have won minor
commissions. such as sous-lieutenant
and captain. and II their education Is
faulty. they more than atone for 1t by
superb courage. says the New Century
Review. They hope to win their pro-
motion by the sword and not by the
book. 1t is this very class of whom
Won Moltke said. in 1870. that while
they possess no other instruction than
that Of the bad primary French in
struction. and give evidence OF gross
ignorance. 1t was precisely these ON
GERS who. :or the greater part, strove
on the battleields OF France to wash
out. at the cost of their blood. faults
for which they were in no way respon-
sible." AS class. the French officers
are equal to any officers on the conti-
nent. up to a certain point.
/ have already alluded to the ad-
vanced age OF the French military
chiefs. which makes 1t impossible for
them to cope with hardship and IA
dgue. The officers between 2s and so
are at their very best, and any young
man who has thoroughly understood
the teaching at st. Cyr might mount a
horse and lead an army corps. but the
absurd reverence for age makes this
an impossibility. In our own day we
have seen the magnificent. clear-head-
edness Of youth in three departments
Kitchener in war, Harmsworth in
Journalism and Lasker In chess. all of
whom seem to emphasize the great les
son that the coming general must be
between the thirties and forties. The
statement that Frances commanding
generals are between So and 65 is al
most a confession of coming defeat.
Another fault lies In the tendency of
the French ofiicer stationed in Paris to
grow fat. The English officer never
has this ridiculous leaning toward en-
bonpoint, but II one were to watch
batch of officers enter the Cercle Mill
taire-I am now speaking of those in
the forties and fifties-one might easi-
ly mistake them for aldermen In uni
form. This argues lack Of exercise,
and would augur lady for the drill of
the troops were It not that in France.
as in England, the bulk of this work
depends upon the noncommlssioned
officers. Luckily for France, her young
army officers are In the pink Of con-
dition. ready for any emergency, and
equal to any demands on their physi-
cal and mental systems. The new
rules laid down at st. Cyr in 1897 must
result In an Improvement in the morale
of the French commanders OF the fu-
ture. The tyranny Of mathematics is
abolished, and every effort is to be
made to instill into the minds Of the
students that war is not SO much a
science as an art, which can be best
achieved by good sense and inspira-
tion.
Gen. Maillard, one of the professors
Of tactics at the Ecole Superieure de
Guerre. says very wisely I: Under the
pretext that the progress of science
and industry will be used In the COM
ing fight between the nations. 1t IL
proclaimed that the conducting OF war
must be scientific, and that 1t will de-
mand high mathematical knowledge.
Nothing is more opposed to the spirit
Of war. The rule Of three alone, up
to the present, has suf1ced. and will
sufiice for all problems depending on
calculation, but to conduct war
means that the chiefs must have high