The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1901-08-06
COMPARISON OF ARMY WORK.

Seattle Pos,-Intslligsncer.
The British parliament Is about 20
make a gran; Of elcO,o0O to Lord Rob-
srs for his service in South Africa, and
on account Of those services he is hailed
in Great Britain as the "greatesi living
soldier" His great advantage seems 20
De that his good work stands gu; IN
such sharp contras, 70 the blundsrs Of
his predecessors in South Africa ;ha: j;
Is given IN popular estimation fc,i,i-
Gus value. Yei, frankly speaking. D; does
not appear that any OF the work o. the
British in South Africa will stand COM
parison with the work done by Amari-
can generals and American armies. both
in Cuba and IN the Philippines. The
work OF our men has not b9sn properly
estimated. either at home Or abroad, for
the paardoxical reason tha, It was dane
50 cleanly. rapidly and wei Y N e;.-
initial operations. either 4 Cuba Or IN
the Philippines. there had bsaa fsa Of
the blunders displayed by lhe British
in South Africa, the succealilg work
would have been much 5righ.snei in
popular estimation by the contrast.
The work, in fact, was SO well done
thai the magnitude Of :hs military prob
lens solved has been los, sign; oi, aal
the generals who led our armies h7ve
received merely perfunc:1.y pralsts,
rather than the enthusiastic sncomiLms
which have been given 70 G-Redal Rob-
erts, The operations wh!,h Jer.ral
shafter conducted successfully wsrs
fully as lmpor;aa; as anv which the
British general handled, y5; In popular
estimation in this country shlttsr lacks
considerably OF being a hero. The un-
broken success OF our armies 5iI lot
rssul, in magnifyiag n s,ryire # our
own men, but rather TO an unierss,i-
mating OF the strength AMI val2r u tn
defeated enemy.
Yet our operations in Cuba alone were
very far from being insignhcan, as COM
pared with those Il the British army II
South Africa. The records Of the Span
Ish forces who were defeated in san,i-
ago will not suffer by comparison with
any record made by the Beers. A; Mag
ersfonteia the British army retrea,ed,
broken and demor3lized. after losses not
nearly so severe proporl9nately as III
American army encountered at San
Juan hill The percentage, of American
loss at El Caney was very much greater
Than Butler had at Colenso, where his
army was checked and driven back,
with the loss OF a large share Of his ar
,illery.
Me.huen hal:ed demoralized, and
waited for weeks Tor reinforcemsnts, af-
ter losses insignificant propordoaatsly
beside those which Skaters army re-
ceived, without checking the American
advance. On the other hand, the Span
ish fought on the defense fully as well
as did the Beers. and in some respects
much better. The Spanish were 10.
driven from a single position without
sustaining a loss out Of all proportion
greater in actual casualties than any
Boer force ever sustained In any en-
gagement in South Africa. In The brief
operations around Santiago the Spanish
lost, in actual killed and wounded, more
men than the Beers had lost after the
South African war had been prolonged
for many months. There has not been
a single battle wagsd in South Africa
in which the British met with such dss-
perate resistance, suffered such per-
centage Of loss, or were compelled to
nfict such severe loss on the enemy be-
fore he would surrender or retreat as
shafter encoutered in every engage
ment preceding the final surrender #
Santiago.
In the Philippines, again, tha un-
broken success Of the American arms
has tended TO destroy the perspective
and prevent the real value Of the SER
vices performed from being thoroughly
appreciated. Yet the military problems
TO be solved in the Philippines were every
whit as important as those encountered