The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-10-17
THE FRENCH SOLDIER
Army Is Not Strong in Numbers Blu,
Makes up for This in Splendid
Discipline and
Training.

PARIS, Oct. 17.-Will the "Grea,
War" come now or later?
In spite of official notes" intended
to "reassure the rabble," issued from
the foreign office in London, Berlin,
and Paris, the general public here, al
most to man, is confident that
sooner or later war with Germany is
bound to come. And it must be sal.
that France is ready for war right
now, though she does not want it.
That is, the government does not
want it and the capitalist probably
does not want it.
But the private citizen, the spirited
little Frenchman who is the backbone
of the land, would just as leave
shoulder his gun today as tomorrow,
if not little bit rather. He feels that
France has been bullied, and that
she has been bullied long enough, by
Germany, and for his part he wouldn't
care hill of beans if the cannons
began to boom right off. He is thor
oughly confident of ultimate victory.
Would he win?
w. L. George, an Englishman, high
lily educated and student of sociol-
ogy and of world politics, has just
served year in the 132nd regiment
Of the line, CHARTERED at RHEIMS,
France. 1t was simply year of in
vestigation for him. He is absolutely
unbiased. He says:
Individually, the French soldier
| is probably the most efficient fighting
machine Europe has known. He may
be less well disciplined than the Ger
man, less stolid than the Austrian,
more afraid of death than the Rus
sian or Turk, but he has no defects
that are not balanced by qualities.
His small stature counts for nothing,
personal experience with them on
marches and maneuvers showed me
the big men falling by the wayside
while the five-foot-fours struggled on
in full kit--a matter Of Sc pounds.
He is notably quick, his average ma
tural intelligence is high-a quality
which, when found in the ranks, Is Of
ten as important as good generalship.
He is one Of the best scouts know
he gets the news but he does not get
caught. And he is gay-one of the
best qualities in soldier He is &C
customed to small, poor rations
mainly bread of a coarse quality and
the refuse of the butchers stall. Milk
butter, eggs are unknown to him; to-
bacco is a rarity and his pay cent a
low Tn, "a =, he ic
the gayest Of soldiers. Lastly he is
patriotic in spite of all that is being
said on socialism and antimIlitarism
in the army. Duke and digger march
side by side, without complaint 1t is
abundantly certain that the French
army has never been filter, individu
ally and collectively, than at pres
ent. It can view hopefully the pros
pect of meeting its foe"
M. Koltz, minister of finance, at
the unwilling of monument at Issou
dun, to the heroes of the Franco-Ger
man war of 1870, stated that the
standing army of France is today big
ger than it was at that time. Their
there were 453,364 soldiers while
there are now under the colors, ISL,
491. Continuing, he settled for goot
the boyle that Frances army was too
Rhine.
"On the first day Of the mobiliza
ttion," he declared, 'over 100000 re
servists belonging to the last contin
gents that had served, would come t,
join the active forces. Thus would b.
formed compact block of nearly i
100000 fighting men, all perfect,
fitted out and trained. And these mel
are between the age of 20 and 2
Nor Is that all: 100000 other re
servists would be summoned on tn
first day of the mobilization, to forn
the regiments of reserve, sconstitutin
what is termed the army of the sec
ond line These reseryists are al
equipped and armed in the sam
manner as those of the army of tn
first line, and their bearing at the di:
ferent manouvers has shown us man
a time, and particularly of late years
that this army of the second line /
not inferior to the first
Let us add that our defense i
completed by 100000 men of tn
Territorial army, and it will be seel
that France could call upon nearl
100000 combatants, 100000 O
whom are trained and equipped. ES
perience has shown that these terri
torials need only few days trainin
to make of them ar army nearly a
formidable as the first one, capable o
guarding not only the land but O
seconding. if that were necessary, tn
efforts of our army of the first line.
Such are our resources in meT
The army is not only strong in nun
Der, but in discipline and training
/. and above all, in confidence in them
selves, and in cheerfulness.