Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1914-02-12
WAR IS NO Longer
field FOR ROMANCE
Invention Of Mechanical Fight
ing Machines Displaces
Ancient Heroes.
From Mcclure,s Magazine.

The glory, the sport n he
of war are dead Heroes are out Of
Dashing leaders will please apply for
employment anywhere than to an army
and a navy. The only spotlight is the
~searchlight that you turn on your
enemy.
War has become a business, as mat
ter of fact as a department store. Its
victories are to the scientist, the
laboratory, the card index and the tele-
phone.
while I have the chief of staff on
the long distance this evening | will
ask him to give you a pass to go with
the army" said the prime minister of
Bulgaria, in the midst of the war Of the
Balkan allies against the Turk.
1t was as simple a matter as the New
York office of a corporation calling up
its Boston office. Savoff, the chief of
staff, was not at the front. He man
aged the war without ever being ear
u battle. Surrounded by his depart
ment heads and experts. he was
the army at the focal point of his wires,
where any vital Hello, central would
Instantly reach him.
Bravery alone did not win for the
allies. The Turks also We're brave. But
their concern went TO wal with a dead
lock among the board of directors, one
set of orders from the president and
another set from Inc general manager.
the plant in disrepair, The shipping de-
partnlent on a strike, stock heavily
Watered, md short term notes due in a
panic, with coli money at 100 per cent.
An army is a steat industrial corpo-
ration which moves most of it's plant
on wheels and legs. It's functions are
the most inclusive and complex of any
corporation, and it should be the most
up-to-date. Other corporations get
their esults from month to month and
year to year in profit and loss. They
are in touch with the test of sales. An
army gees it's real test only in war.
A private corporation may be out Of
date and keep on doing business for a
wh!ie. 1t may travel cn prestige dis,
tanning improvements and letting Of
flee dead wood continue to gum the
wheels, but nc army and no navy a
be u~nprogressive and stand the trial
Of war. Whatever new invention APP
pears. you will find the fighting forces
of the world tho first to use it If it has
any possible application in their pro-
fession.
The most dramatic moment in recent
military history occurred when a Ger
man military Girigible had to descend
in france because of engine trouble.
The French officers had a peep at the
great German mystery, and found. to
their delight that, it had o a single
appliance that was not already known
through thu hidden processes Of the
French Intelligence service. There
fore. the military corporations demand
the ablest detectives. Not long ago
the plans Of eur new battleship, the
Pennsylvania. not to mention the plans
of a new 1S-inah naval gun, disappear
ed from the navy department. The
plans for the 6rst dreadnought, which
the British navy tried its best to keep
secret, We're in possession of every
first-rate European navy before its
keel was laid.
\ single invention may decide bat
ties. The fast that the krupp recoil
for field CUES was not SO good as the
French, in tho actual test of war. was
worth a score Of regiments to the Bul-
gars armed with Canets. while the
Turks We're armed with Krupps. There
is no moro martial omanc IN perfect
ing a field gun, or in assembling the
parts of q battleship and organizing a
battlship's crew, than there is in per-
tecting automobile motors and or
ganizing an automobile manufacturing
plant.