The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-03-08

ever was one, kept well within feaSona-
BILE argument when he enlarged at the
Manchester town meeting last night
upon the black future that may be pre-
pairing for US through the developments
of modern miltarism 1t may be re-
marked. by the way, that the terror in
splred by the new inventions in explo-
sives and ordnance has been the chief
cause of the long period OF peace that
the continent, as a whole, has enjoyed;
so that an arrest of ornaments, il ever
brought about, would tend rather to
precipitate warfare than to avert it.
But a more profitable line of thought is
to be discovered in the lecture delivered
by Colonel Elmslie at Aldershot last
night on 1.-THE Possible Effect on Tao
ties of Recent Improvements in Weap-
ons."
He agrees with the German military
critics in foretellng that the secret of
victory will lie within the brain of the
commander.Th big battle, and with it
the campaign, will be decided by sud-
den and decisive operations, depending
upon skill in making use of the nature
OF the ground, and employing the art of
invsibillty. The side that can make
good tactical point and stick to it will
hold an immense advantage in the tug
or war. That Is to say, every effort will
be put forth to make the most of the ar
| tillery and rifle attack. A fire concen-
trated upon one spot to beat down the
| fire of the enemy will be the grand
stroke for which the Moltke of the flu
ture will play. To that end he will
I study t1nOurl with the aSgi6I1itU pf
a scholar porting over worm eaten
manuscript He will train his troops to
be mobile for every emergency and his
officers will be taught to act on the spur
of the moment A series of PUSHES,
masked by the quick-fring gun, the ma
chne-gun and the magazine rifle, will
settle the fortunes of the day. One po-
sition gained will form the basis for the
next, until the beaten army, completely
outmanoeuvred, will either take to its
heels or capitulate. Warfare in short,
will resolve itself more than ever into a
huge game Of chess, in which the WIN
ner will be the greater master of combi-
nation and striking power.
The deductions to be drawn from Col
onel FINISHES lecture, paradoxical
rlly in favor Of vast amount Of slaugh-
ter. If the European armies were to
rush upon their doom, as the Dervishes
did at Omdurman, the field howitzers
would, no doubt, pile them up in heaps
of corpses. But, as the lecturer re-
marked, the forces Of the continent will
probably be found to possess but little
of the sticking power of the Emir's
magnificent fanatics. They will be
composed of conscripts, taken sorely
against their will from the counter and
the tail Of the plough. The increase OF
range has necessitated the need of
greater numbers to guard against an
fire, and that again has add
ed to the number Of towards The vet
eran soldier has practically disappeared
during the long period of peace, and the
statistics complied by the German gen.
eral staff tend strongly to the conclusion
that the capacity to stand up against
artillery depends entirely upon the per-
centage Of old mustaches in the ranks.
The armies, then that will decide the
fate Of Europe will be composed of civil
ians in military uniform, whose nerves
will be tried by the terrors of unknown
SCltHliiic luNeHliUHS Luz iloulS, PEI maps |
before they get fair chance of reply |
ing. 1t should follow that, after a really |
decisive move on the attacking side, the |
officers of the defence will be unable to
keep their men together. The tempta-
ton of snug carriage on the strategic |
railway will prove too strong for lads |
who are little better than raw recruits, |
and the chief object Of their general will |
be to prevent the retreat from degenera- |
ting into rout And with the improve |
ment in the range Of projectiles increas- |
ing the distance between the two arm
les, the beaten force Will get much !
longer start than it did such compare
lively short time ago as 1870. This, |
again, should make for victories far less
bloody than the amateur strateglst inn |
AGNES, since the pursuer will find it be-
yond human endurance to overtake and |
overwhem. We may add that the con-
science Of Europe, as expressed, howev-
er imperfectly, in its diplomacy, will re-
coil from the spectacle of an army be-
ing butchered like sheep in the sham
bles and that Old Guards, which die
but never surrender will become even
more mythical than that of Waterloo.
What, then, If warfare, instead of resell
wing itself into carnage on an unprece-
dented scale, should revert to the theat-
realities of the Renaissance, in which
armies manoeuvred and counter man.
but very few were killed? The
theory may sound startling, but 1t may,
nevertheless, be realized, now that the
soldier is educated and has been per-
suaded by men of science that he is
Mall Gazette.