The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-07-23

America as d fighting possibility at
{ the time this volume was written. He
studies in detail the effectiveness Of
| European armies, discusses their eX-
/ isting preparations for war. their plans
of mobilization the training of their
officers, the training of their SOL
diers. their camps, their fortresses. the
possibilities of night and day fighting,
/ the general esprit du corps. the opera
tions of all of them during the wars
which have occurred in the last CEN
fury: indeed he omits no one thing
which might by any possibility be use
full to the student. This volume alone
contains more than 500 pages.
The third volume is the briefest and
the least important of his work 1t
deals with naval warfare. and the SUD
ject is not competently treated.
In the fourth volume he treats of
economical problems and their prob
able effect in the war of the future II
goes into the subject tof course, in
tensely interesting to AmericO of the
supply and maintenance of troops. 1t
considers the cost of the military as
compared with the revenues of all ma
tiOns. 1t shows what tremendous ad-
vances in relative cost will mark the
war of the future. 1t points out the
inequality of the preparations for war
made by different European countries,
and it shows the influence different
factors have ON the spirit of armies
and the character of their preparations
for war.
The fifth volume tells of the develop
ment Of the idea that may lead toward
peace 1t goes into details concerning
the literature of perpetual peace among
civilized peoples. 1t deals with social
ism, with anarchy and with the propa-
cation of anti-miltarism. 1t tells OF the
different ideas of various countries con-
corning causes for war. 1t discusses The
influence of armies actually in exist
ence upon the people of the different
countries. 1t goes into the matter of
wounds and sickness resulting from
war most exhaustively-even to the
point of calculating the penetration
and general effect of every bullet now
in use by a civilized nation. The mar
velous detail of this volume cannot be
described in a brief article. No posi-
BILE point is omitted, and every conceiv-
able detail is given in full. The rec
ords of the United States government
the civil war has never been more COM
pletely summarized than are the stud
les of NJ de Bloch in this volume.
But it is in the sixth volume that NJ
de Bloch says those things which it has
been his mission to say. Over thirty
different headings. each one elaborate
in it's detail, are covered in this one
book ! am not writing a criticism of
NJ. de Bloch's War" l am merely try
ing to give an idea of the magnitude
of his work / doubt if there is a hui
man being TODAY who is competent to
criticise Bloch's marvellous book. Ger
tainly no one has ever studied the sub
iect as he has. / have IN my possess
sion some typewriter copies in French
and English of his notes on certain
sub heads on the one matter of the i'm
possibility of aiding wounded on the
field of battle his revised and con-
densed notes amount to fifty closely
typewriter pages. An extremely brief
sketch of what he has to say about the
of modern rifle bullets COW
ers forty-three pages.
1t is in the sixth volume that he sum-
marizes his arguments. Before it is
half finished he leaves his descriptions
of war and his data concerning battles
and soldiers and begins to speculate on
the possible ways of preventing inter-
conflicts. In order to Justify |
the statement which 1 make near the |
of this article that NJ. de
Bloch, and not the ear. is the father |
of the peace conference. 1 must again |
call the readers attention to the fact |
that the book alone occupied in the |
mere writing. eight full years and that |
before he could begin writing it he had |
to spend almost an entire lifetime in |
the gathering of information Thus his |
idea long antedated the cars. His !