The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-01-02
NEED OF A BIG ARMY.

IT is TO be hoped that the Dill liking
the maximum strength of the army at
100, 900 men viii pass att this session of
Congress and become a law. Up to the
year 1898, following the peace reorgan-
ization of the military forces of the
United States which came several years
after the Civil War, $4,000 men, or
about half the number embraced IN
foreign army corps, We're deemed SUI
ficient That number would not be
more than enough at this time to care
for the new forts and batteries and to
afford reliefs for service at the guns.
Twice as many would not be enough
for all mainland purposes and 100000
men are no more than the need of
suitable war nucleus calls for.
For many years the American people
put an undue faith in the superiority
"over all creation of the Yankee vol
| unteer. though, in point of fact no vol
unteer has ever cut much of a figure in
legitimate warfare against trained reg
ulars. Our own history is full OF ex-
ampIes of their failure under fire. we
lost most of the land fights in the revo-
luton; we gained the Yorktown victory
with the aid of French regulars. In
1912 our battles, with the single eXcep-
ton of the fight at New Orleans were
mortifying in their results; the inva-
sion of Canada failed; the capitol at
Washington was taken and burned by
a numerically inferior foe, but one
trained in the business of arms. Dur
ing the Mexican War we fought rab-
BILE; in the Civil War, volunteers fought
volunteers and they trained each otheE;
in the war with Spain the only great
land fight that at Santiago, was won
by the Regular Army, the volunteers
present, except Roosevelt's Rough Rid
ers, cutting sorry figure. If at any
time in the last twenty years our vol
unteers had been pitted against the
regulars of Germany or Great Britain
or France, heaven only knows what
might have happened to the American
republic The experience of 1898 was
an eye-opener as to the value of these
raw levies when called to act without
long previous discipline. In six ni5nths
our Philippine heroes. generals and all,
pleaded for a sight of home; volunteers
in Cuba raised a wall of distress in
three weeks: and the various American
training camps, from the Presidio TO
Tampa bay, yielded a spectacle 0hlch
abashed the nation. We had n glimpse
of the general state OF things when,
at Honolulu. our people were compelled
to tolerate the presence of that uudiSci
plined rabble known as the First New
York
Now the United States cannot always
depend on getting the chance to match
their own volunteers with others. The
next war may be with Germany. An
|undercurrent of hostility exists between
the two nations; the navies OF both
are having a race of construction; The
armies of both are watching each other
with a jealous and discerning eya.
Should war ever come, it would be pos
sible. on our immense coast line, for Z,
German army corps to land-a corps
of the steadiest and most machine ike
soldiers in the world. We could not
meet those troops with militia: We
| could not shake their iron formations
With the assault of hastily-mustered
dry goods clerks. farmer boys and me-
chanics, designated as volunteers Reg
ulars must be on hand men SO drille.!
and fashioned that they will not thip,
| or anything but the business in hand
i VIII not stampede; 1'ill obey an order
that sends them to the gate of death
itself. If we have enough of these.
| come the four corners of the world
in arms ..a-., s.
| That is the argument for a Regular
iarmy and it is one the American people
are now ready to heed. They want an
army and navy that will stand like
! a wall of steel about the peace and
honor of the land. They are not afraid
that one soldier will coerce seven
hundred citizens and make them lose
their liberties. They have had two
million men under arms and seen them
| return, with duty done. to the pursuits
| of peace, Imperialism at home does
not scare them, for it is a bogy of tin
sci and stage thunder; but of imperial
ism abroad, the kind that hates and
threatens this republic. they have an
apprehension which prompts them to
encourage every measure which the
wisdom Of Congress may devise to erect
the safeguards of a powerful defensive
force