The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-04-07

The truth, that theory is apt to be badly
shattered by experience and practice, is in
teTestingly illustrated in paper by Mr.
Hudson Maxim the inventor and expert in
high explosives, in the current number Of
the Home Magazine" 1t will be remem-
bered by our readers that this journal has
devoted editorial attention, more than
once, to the remarkable military work Of
NJ. Bloch on THE Future of War" book
so startling in its propositions, arguments,
and conclusions that IL is said to have
filled the amiable heart OF Gar Nicholas
with CONSERVATION, and caused him to con-
vene The Hague Peace Conference. In
that able treatise, NJ. Bloch held-so great
had become the power, precision, and gen.
eral effectiveness OF modern weapons and
projectiles-that war in the future would
become impossible because there would
always be zone of death between armies
which nothing could bope TO traverse and
survive and that for at least a thousand
OF twelve hundred yards in front Of any
ent'enched position avery bullet fired by
the defending force would find its billet If
there were living creatures in the direction
OF the firing and within its range.
NJ Bloch wrote his book before the out
break of the war in South Africa. Prob
ably, if he should now decide to issue a
second edition, he would qualify some OF
his views. Mr.. Hudson Maxim takes issue
with them as they appeared originally, and
attempts 10 show, rather convincingly in
many respects, that the Bloch conceptions
and theories are faulty. Against NJ
Blochs belief that perfection Of the engi-
merry Of destruction tends to make war i'm
possible, Mr.. Hudson Maxim asserts that
from the dawn OF gunpowder- warfare there
has been steady diminuendo movement
observable in casualties in battle He
states that in the time Of Caesars wars it
was common for fifty per cent of the COM
batants to perish in a battle, and the
wounded were so small in number as to be
hardly noticed in the reports When ad-
versaries we're armed only with sword and
spear it was necessary to come TO close
quarters and haud-to-hand struggle was
inevitable. Such conditions involved vic
tory OF annihilation TO each bslligerent
Defeat found the conqueror Immediately
on the heels of his vanquished foe and re-
treat meant massacre. Thus. in one day.
Alexander slaughtered one hundred thou
sand Persians on a single field At the
battle Of Cannae (B. C. 216) Hannibal slew
forty eight thousand OF sixty thousand Ro-
mans engaged against him. In the battle
of the Marine Valley, fought in October
A d. 451, between the Romans and Goths.
Ia
were slain at the rate of one hundred thou
sand day for three days But in Napo-
Icons wars only twenty-five per cent Of
the troops engaged we're killed or wounded
The proportion was reduced to twenty per
cent in the American civil war, and, for all
NJ. Bloch's exterminating predictions, the
casualties in the South African war have
not yet risen above ten per cent.
Yet the arms of precision in use in our
latest military lesson are ali that Bloch
expected; only other factors do not operate
as he felt sure they would. Notwithstand-
ing the laundering examples we have seen
TO the contrary, the frontal attack in mass
has been abandoned in battle tactics. Be-
cause IT has war has ceased all the more
10 be game to be decided by brute force;
but rather by superior organization, mobil-
ity, and strategicsl and tactical ability.
II We accept Mr.. Hudson Maxim's views. It
will be so TO a still greater extent in the
future. Indeed he offers some suggestions,
based upon HIS own researches and inyen-
tons. which are well worth the consIdera-
ton OF our general staff--when We get one.
Ne reytves the memory Of q venerable