The National tribune., 1900-08-02
3HE ALLIED ARMY.

in all ages. 1t was an immense allied
army which Xerxes led into Greece, near.
ly $500 years ago. Then the allies of
Persia stood by and saw the little Greek
army, led by Alitiades, whip the Persians
numerically. Napoleon used to play horse
wherever he came up with them. He came
near doing so with the allied British ?nd
FruSsians in his last campaign. The only
thing that prevented him was that grim
old Field Marshal Blucher, after he had
Eod his own licking, had the sense to
march over and join the British, just as
| they were about licked, and the two arm
| les proved too much for Napoleon. But
| that was the only time in about - years
| Of fighting that any commander had shown
such excellent soldiership. The first great
difiicuity-that of lansuaSc-haS already
developed. The French will naturally in
sist that the French-whICh has been used
so much as 4 world language shall be en-
ployed as n means Of communicating or
dcrs and information. Probably the Rus
slams would agree to this, and possibly
the Japanese and Italians. But the Eng
lish and the Americans would only reluc-
family consent, and the Germans he sure
to utterly refuse. The Germans will nat
urally be insistent on their own language,
which the French will hotly reject, and
to than the French, since all of our Off
GERS have some knowledge of French.
while few of them know much German.
For sentimental reasons the Russian will
object to German. The best language is
Of course the English. but the Russians
are likely to stubbornly object to the
speech Of their greatest rival, and prob
able enemy, and the French have an aver
sion to it only second to that against
German. Japan, having the strongest
force on the ground, would have reason
to insist upon japanese, but that would
be uninteliigible to and almost unlearnable
by everybody else.
-NtA', al dlii., " be su'CtSSluib iuSl
have one head, with absolute power over
life and death, to secure the carrying out
Of his plans. How can this be secured?
There will be the widest possible divers
ence all the time among the several con-
tingents making up the army as to what
ought to be done, when it ought to be
done. and how it ought to be done, and
proper cooperation can be only secured
by despotic head, with full power to
order every subordinate as to what he
shall do, when do it, reward him if he
obeys, and summarily punish him if he
does not. Then come also vexatious dis
putes about the control of the line of
communications, the locations of the diff
ferent contingents, etc, etc. The proba-
BILE upshot will be that the American com.
mander, tired of the unending disputes,
and weary of the inacton. will mark out
his own course and follow il. possibly
with the cooperation Of the British pos
sibly with that of the Japanese. The
Germans ought naturally to fall i'll with
the Americans, except that they are pos
military nation of the world, and that we
should rather fall in with them, rather
than they with us.
There is no man among the allies who
has sufficient rank or reputation to give
him an ascendancy over all the others.
Our General-Chaffee- seen much
more downright hard fighting on a grand
scale than any other General there, but
the other officers are likely to urge against
this that most of this experience was
gained while he was an enlisted man or
4 subaltern, while they have held import
ant commands i'll more recent operations.
Still, Chaffee commanded brigade at
Santiago, while il is hardly likely that
any German or French officer present had
so large a command iii their last great
war--in 1876 Il-0r that any Russian
present commanded so much as Il brigade
in Russia's last war-in 1876. Until the
Bocr war the British have had no real
war since the Crimcan-i6 years ago-so
that they eau have no officer of expert
encc equal TO Chaffee's. The Japanese
must have officers who commanded bri
gades. divisions. or even corps il their re-
cent war with China. Still Chaffee must
be the most experienced General i'll the
outfit, and best qualified for Generalissino
THE most puzzling thing to everybody
is the impossibility of eating any news
from Pekin. The mmensity of the mob
surrounding and i'll possession of the city
would ordinarily be no impediment. The
heterogeneons character of mobs usually