The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1912-10-30
CURRENT COMMENT
whole Nations Under Arms.

No circumstances in the present Ba kan sit
nation is perhaps more interesting Of mole
Ieserv ny OF notice than the size of armies the
eeiatvely insgn cGnt States aligned against
Turkey are preparing TO put in the tied. "A
more STRIKING revelation or an extreme appii-
cation of the prime iies of the ma ton n atrns
Ntuld he Difficult. TO discover
OF all these EG kan States the example cf
Montenegro is tha most Impressive. 1t Is hardly
a week since this little principal ty opened its
attack upon Turkey, yet today upward OF 30, 900
Montonegrins are lighting upon Turkisn seal
Compare with his the 30,000 the ,rtfte N
States were able to put upon the field ut Bull
Run nearly two months after Fort sumter was
fred upon or the 1900 mperfecty equipped
troops that started from Florida with Shafter
IN 1898 two months after war was declared
9.;1'n%t Spain ft- / opulatian Of Mor'.,,s,t.,
today falls under 100000, but the Northern
States in 1851 numbered 2o,000 200 and In 1875
the population of the United States exceeded
Hardly less astonish ng Is the case of Greece.
The population of the tiny Hellenic Kingdom
half as b & as New York in area does not ex-
coed $500 900, yet it is agreed that in the first
ten days not less than 1885, 600 Greek soldiers
nave been modified the Turkish front err
IN 1918 Napoleon was able to collect for hts
Waterloo campaign after two months Of effort
ana In a country filled with veterans and With >,
ponulation exceed ng 80. 100000 only 1a4 900
soldiers. Of whom hardly half actually faced
Wellington
II Is the mil tary resources of Bulgaria, how.
ever. which are really most amazing judged
~ nineteenth century standards. At AuSterlitz,
Where Napoleon overthrow the combined Rus
SIAN ana Austrian hosts, the grand army num-
pefed but $4,000 that of enemies less than
s9.eeu. AT Leipsic, in the famous Battle Of the
MAJ ons, IN which most of the nations of Flu
rope were represented, the force of Napoleon
barely reached 10000; that of his opponents
was perhaps $4,000 strong. To-Day on +h,
bulgarian frontier facing Adrianopie $500
Enlgarlans are mobl zed. lthough Bulgaria
counts less than 5000 600 inhabitar-s
Granted that the Turks place only m equal
force I'M the field to meet the Bulgarians the
conflict between the two armies will dwarf the
famous battles of the nineteenth century At
combined did not pass 10000 At Solferino
Austr ans, the opposing armies each numbered
nut 10000 AT Konisgratz. where Prussia
9umbed Austria, 221 GEO Prussians CONQUERED
$1,000 Austriars At Gravelotte. the truly de-
:" sve contest Of the Franco Prussian war 23O :
Ae0 Pruss'ans prevailed $50 900 French A
glance shows that the number engaged In these
battles were in every case inferior to the forces
OF Turks and Bulgar ans aligned on the Martha
II Is only III the Russo ia pa nese war that
fguves can be found which bear comparison
with those of Balkan and Turk sh armies At
Mukden Russian and japanese armies alike
exceeded 100000. But the population Of Rus
STA and Japan combined exceeded $50, 600 900
in 1905. and that of all the Balkan States today
falls short OF 10000. o00 1t is possible I ca rry
these comparisons still further, but the fore
Going stat sites sufficient to demonstrate
that in numbers at least the struggle in the
Balkans should lose little by contrast with the
great contests of the world powers which have
docfded European events for a century.,-~New
York sun. A.