The Indianapolis journal., 1902-05-18
THE SOLDIER OF TODAY.


luton which has taken place with the in
PRODUCTION of modern rapid-firing arms.
The old tactics of Europe have become
obsolete, in the judgment of the writer,
to an extent that the armies of the most
military nations will prove to be of little
value. ''They are too military to be war
like" to use the words of the historian
Of the Crimean war, meaning that soldiers
could be so wooden as to be ineffective
when the modern small arm is in use.
The writer takes as recent wars the
war with Spain and the British war in
South Africa. The lessons are the same in
both, though much more emphatic in South
Africa. War is as ''grim-visaged" as ever,
but the cuirassier, the uhlan and the
grenadier of red, white and blue with in
credible headgear have passed out of effect
i've warfare. Their passing began with
the development of the American soldier on
the frontier; it was hastened by our civil
war, and their departure has been con-
summated by the practical and alert
American soldier as he appeared at San
tiago and in China3 and by the unmilitary
but warlike Boer sharpshooter With the
arms the man bearing them has changed.
The wooden soldier of the old times be-
longed not only to the tactics but to the
social condition of his period To use the
words of the writer, 'he was part of the
blind herd of cattle in circus clothes driven
from one slaughter pen to another at the
caprice of cabinets of cynical Talleyrands
or Metternichs, and after lifetime of
such performances knew nothing more
than when he began" This type of soldier
has been made obsolete with the replacing
of his flint-lock musket good at 100 yards,
and his lance, with the rapid-fire repeat
ing rifle, effective at a mile. The wooden
soldier" cannot be taught the use of the
modern arm. He is merely a helpless target
on the modern battlefield. Victory is no
longer with the heaviest battalions, but
with the more expert rifeman who can
take care of himself. The fighting unit
has been diminishing, says the West Point
professor, from the regiment to the COM
pany until it is now a clear prophecy that
1.-The future fighting unit will be the indi-
vidual. The fighting soldier of to-day will
be no machine, and consequently, to a
greater degree, his own commander" So
this West Point graduate and instructor
says the officer must attain his ascendency
over him. not by social superiority, not by
the fact of his commission to command
him, but by a moral ascendency and by
knowing his business better.
The weakness of the British army has
been for years that its officers were ig-
norant of their business They had cour-
age to rashness, but they lacked the real
knowledge of making war. Ignorant Off
GERS, at all times dangerous, are much
more dangerous under the new conditions.
TO soldiers who have no initiative of their
own and whose officers have no knowledge
of their own. modern arms are doubly dan
gerous tools. Such soldiers are no match
for the ranchman "who, from the drill
masters point Of view, lacks all soldierly
qualities but "who has the capacity to
which can be carried by the individual,
and the ability to shoot straight" OF war
fare between the British regulars brave
to a fault, and the Beers, the world sees
the result in the words of the writer:
These grave bearded, heavy-eyed. gothic
men in plain clothes and slouch hats, cross
belted with a. couple of hundred death
bolts, and hugging repeating rifle. are to
my mind more dignified and impressive as
an impersonation of war than all the cui-
rassiers, uhlans, hussars, gTenadiers and
field marshals that ever bespangled bat
tlefeld. Fathers and grandfathers.
sons and grandsons, have lain down
and died together in homespun. and their
blood has been just red though it
stained a scarlet coat, cuirass or khaki.
Their homes are desolate, their women and
children in pens their beloved veldt in
vaded, their nationality obliterated, them
selves a ragged handful, and yet they keep
250.OO0 modern Anglo-SaxOn soldiers on
the jump, and every now and then release
a few hundred of them, minus their guns
and shoes, but with a blessing and an i'm
preSsive experience.
The American regular is nearly as far
away from the academic and conventional
type of soldier as the Beers. When the
regulars assembled at Tampa the attaches
of foreign governments pronounced them
an undisciplned mob until they got to
work When they watched these soldiers
at Santiago at work they could not speak
too highly, not only of individual initia-
tive, but of fine discipline" The same
experience was repeated in China. The
comment of an officer who watched our
soldiers in China was that ''the Americans
are the worst troops I have ever seen of
the battlefield, but on ii they are the
best" The new arms and the capacity to
shoot straight account for the great
losses of the Filipinos compared with the
very small lists of casualties On our side.
The individual soldier. with his repeating
rife skilled by target practice and the
smokeless powder, with its long-range pro-
jectile and. with all, his greater intelli-
gence, account for his effectiveness.
$50 great is the demand of the Americans
for Filipino independence that the Ameri-
can government has been compelled to
mobilize troops at Washington to protect
the President" is one of the dispatches
sent from the insurrecto junto in Hong
ba TSilfpipoc ssOr,r