Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1902-07-15
maasaa pilot.
TUESDAY, JULY Is, 1902.
Published weekly and entered stthe Post OHic'
ct Wausau as second class matter.
A Great and Useless Expense.

A Great and Useless Expense.
The Boer war has given the world
a most valuable lesson on the subject
of standing armies.
Two little republics with total pop
ulation of less than half million,
raised All army of soldiers before when
the trained regulars of Great BritM 0
were of little account. The difference
was between men who were fighting for
home and fatherland on the one hand,
and men who were fighting because
they were hired to fight, on the other
hand. There was great difference in
the manhood of those two, but in the
last analysis we believe that differ
ence would usually be found between
men who will not fight for mere wages,
and men who adopt the soldiers life as
a means of livelihood.
The Beers have given the nations this
lesson. But the nations have not
learned the lesson. No nation
that is monarchy is likely to
learn it. The standing army in a
monarchy is necessary for the pro-
lection of the ruler against his own
subjects A government that is afraid
of its own people needs a standing
army. Governments that have no cause
to fear their own people, as, for instance,
the United States, have no need of a
standing army, except perhaps, very
small one, to be used as a sort of police
force. Yet even our government will
not learn the lesson, because among
the other influences that are potent in
Washington; there are the army officers
They are trained for war, and I'M
trained for any useful work. They
love rank and social standing, and
are satisfying their ambitions for these
things through their positions as army
officers. They are strictly men of one
idea; they have never had but one idea
the military idea. They are incap-
able of comprehending any other
They may be honest and sincere in this
Cranks usually are. But there is no
more unsafe man for counsel than
the always inHexible man of one wrong
idea in which he sincerenly believes.
So recent events in this country warn
us that the army officers are in no dan
ger of losing their places. On the con-
trary there is to be more than ever of
them.
We do not forget that during the re-
cent war with Spain, out of some two
hundred regiments of volunteers raised,
oaiy one or two were ever permitted
to go upon the firing line. Nor do we
forget that the regular army officers
said this was because they We're not fit,
nor sufficiently prepared. That would,
rs matter of course, be the decision
of regular army officer, for if these
recruits, after three months of camp
and drilling, could do well in active SER
vice it might convince people that a
standing army is entirely unnecessary.
Yet it seems almost incredible that these
regular army officers should have sue
ceeded in getting senators aud members
of congress to believe that our state
troops were unfit to fight the Spanish
regulars in Cuba, when they had, right
before their eyes, the fact that the raw
Cuban recruits had done it, and proved
themselves, man for man, more than
the equals of those same Spanish reg
ulars upon many field although poorly
equipped with arms. Yes it is passing
strange, how obtuSe the minds of our
statesmen become to receiving an inn
preston from obvious facts when there
happens To bea strong lobby interested
in preventing it. And there always is
the lobby.