The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-04
BILLIONS WOULD Be
REQUIRED FOR FIGHT
To Drive Japanese Army From
Pacific Coast
AN ARMY OFFICER TALKS
Would Take at Least Quarter of n
Million Lives TO Drive the Intruder
On-Regulnr Army Would
BE POwerIess

San Antonio, Texas, April 3.-(Special)
That it would take 10000, 100000 to drive
the Japanese army from the Pacific slope
and that at least a quarter of q million
lives would be sacrificed in the effort, is
the opinion of one of the best informed
and ablest officers in the United States
army, whose name it is not necessary
to mention. Interviewed on the eve of
the departure of his regiment to the Phil
ippnes as to his opinions of the situa-
ton in the Far East, he said:
whether Japan intends to take the
Philippines from the United States or
engage in aggression on the Pacific slope
l am, of course, not in a position to say,
and I take it for granted that there is no
one who could. That such is their in
tention has been voiced around great
deal, but it is safe to say that there
is for such a statement little ground out
side of circumstantial evidence. 1 think
the history of wars proves that more of
them have been the result of precipitancy
war between Japan and the United States
would be the result of careful planning
is for this reason hard to say
There is one thing, however, on which
I can be a little more definite, and that
is that this country, by reason of its
small army, would have hard work dis
lodging the Japanese once they had
gained good foothold west of the Rock
les A recent writer has pointed this
out in very efficient way, although he
has merely corroborated the general inn
preston of United States army officers.
The fact of the matter is that the enemy
could hold the Pacific slope indefinitely
once he had succeeded in getting his
forces into the Rockies. Every advantage
of terrain would be his. His base of sup
plies would be but a few miles away.
while that of the American army would
be subject to the inaccessible stretches
that lead to the Rockies from the east
certain localities in the northern parts
duly excepted 1t is a well known fact
that the military terrain of the Rockies
places all advantage In the hands of the
force holding 1t from the west. 1t would
take at least a quarter million lives and
SO, 900, 100000 to drive the intruder off.
1.-The regular army would merely be
a drop in the bucket in a struggle of that
kind, and the whole of 1t would not be
able to meet the invader in a single large
engagement. The brunt of battle would
fall on the militia organizations. volun-
teers and draft forces. On their effic-
iency, under present conditions, would
depend the future of the country.
Whether the superb showing of the civil
war would be repeated is a problem
do not care to go into. but the experience
of England during the late Boer war is
against acceptance Of such a theory af-
firmatively. While the danger in the
case of this country would not come from
physical deterioration, it, no doubt. would
manifest itself in the circumstance that
the population of this country today is
urban to a far greater extent that it was
in the Sixties, and for this reason less
fitted to undergo the hardships of a cam
paign without preliminary training and
inuring. Then too, our large city popu-
lation is absolutely unacquainted with
the use of firearms and the use of gun
in the rural districts is not by any means
as general as it once was. While there
is nothing very difficult in the effec
tive handling of a modern rifle. 1t takes
a good deal of time and practice to make
the average man as fair shot as the
average army turns out in our days. Yet
effective fire counts for everything in mod
ern warfare and what the performance
of hastily levied citizen forces would be
under the calling fire of modern rifles
and machine guns in the hands or a SOL
der as we'll trained and disciplined as the
jap do not event want to contemplate.
1t would be a holocaust and rout on one
side and complete victory on the other
Personal bravery is a great thing in war
II coupled with effective training and or
ganization, but it is of not the slightest
use when it is rendered inactive through
the lack of these factors. The American
citizen soldier has indeed an enviable
record for both efficiency and bravery.
but others. the Japs for instance, are not
totally deficient in this either as the late
Russo-Japanese war has APPLY demon
strated The unpreparedness that marked
the first stages of the Civil War was not
perceivable for the reason that both sides
were under the same handicap"