The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1906-04-28
LESSONS or The
SPANISH WAR
Flight In Which the Country
Found Itself at the Begin
lag of the Struggle Showed
the Folly Of Unprep.red-
ness

| AO0O
MILITARY TRAINING VALUE
CITIZEN soLDIERY PROPERLY
DRILLED AND EQUIPPED
PROVES A MAINsTAY IN THE
OF NEED.
In balancing the score Of ournational
1 gains and losses on account of the Span
| ish-American War, and of the events
/ which have followed it, large item must
be placed on the credit side of the ledger
to represent the great increase through
/ out the United States in the subject of
practical military instruction and train
/ ing, says the 'Army and Navy Journal
The long interval of peace preceding the
war of 1898 was period of popular in
difference to the plain lessons of military
| experience The extraordinary expansion
| of productive enterprise, the tremendous
! increase of public and private wealth,
the spread of education and the intense
rivalries of peaceful competition IN trade
and industry all combined to absorb the
energies of the people so completely that
! the higher needs of the nation in the mat
ter Of defense and sef-preservation We're
| eitherg ignored or forgotten. The result
was that when the crisis with Spain
| arose the Government had to maneuver
for months to delay war for which it
was grossly unprepared Those who
clamored for war had only the yaguest
notion of its requirements. They. mis-
took our military resources for military
strength, with no more real warrant for
| so doing than they would have to mistake
a mass of steel ingots for finished rifles
and cannon.
And even when the Government, after
devoting the time gained by delay to
hasty and expensive efforts to improvise
means to meet the emergency, finally en-
tered upon the campaign it did so heavily
handicapped by lack of proper prepara
| ton. The o. S. Army as it entered that
war was, man for man, unsurpassed in
| the world; it was perhaps as nearly per-
| feet in all respects as any that ever took
| the field. But it was, after all, merely a
| skeleton army-a working model on
which to build the greater one required
for the work ahead. Having failed to
develop and maintain In peace large
and efficient soldiery for just such emer-
gencies, as strenuousiy urged by the
wisest of our great men from Washing
| ton down to his living successors, the
nation was obliged to resort to the des-
! perate and costly expedient of training
for warm war. Because Of that direful
need the early stages of the war were
characterized by amazing confusion, de-
lay, and shocking waste of life and
treasure The history of that campaign,
indeed, while it gives lasting renown to
the endurance, yalor and self-sacrifce of
the American people, is little short of a
reproach to their military judgment and
| methods.
The war, however, as already suggest
ed, has had, the wholesome effect of
arousing the public INTEL gence to
keener apprehension of the nations mil-
itary needs The people are beginning to
realize that our next war, when it comes.
will probably be with ia power greater
than Spain, and thar if we are to come
out of it victorious we shall have to go
into it infinitely better snrepared than we
were i'll 1898. To measure our ability
to encounter a hrst-clAss power by cur
success in the Spanish war would be an
act of national madness. and happily
there is no manifest disposition d among
intelligent citizens to, do so. On the CON
trary. there is among the thinking mass
es of the people not only a rapid and
rational growth Of the military spirit, but
swift increase Of practical interest in
the important subecti of military oygani-
zation and military instruction. More
over, this interest has received direct and
emphatic expression in various acts of
Congress looking to 4 broader and more
scientific Development Of our military re-
sources into military strength in tAefo m
Of a great national militia and it's close
association with the Army for purposes
of instruction and training.
These acts. while in need Of amend
ment and extension in some respects.