Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-03-13
ARMIES AND WAR
European Armies Do Not Want to Do
Real Fighting.

heai Fi9hting.
Europe's million-strong armies do
not want to fight That is why there
are no great wars. This Is the new
discovery Of political philosophers,
and thereby they aim nasty gibe at
the foreign offices. The foreign offices
just now are shaking hands with
themselves over the supernal wisdom
with which they keep the peace; they
are saying: What great men we are;
how astute, moderate, resourceful, pa
cific; how magnificently, despite fiery
soldiers and fierier newspaper men, We
compe peace. Did we not stop the Bal
kan vohflagration spreading, though
every one has agreed for century
that the Balkans would set Europe a
slaughtering? How wise the world is
growing!"
Foreign Minister Sazonoff has been
saying this (about himself; Foreign
Minister Sir Edward Grey says the
same thing (about HIMSELF; and For
eign Minister Count Berchtold is about
to say the same thing to the delega-
tions. And now along come the polit-
ical philosophers, and VOW that this Is
all humbug. The unpected Armaged-
don was avoided not by the wisdom Of
the stupid diplomats but for a much
weightier reason-because the armies
do not want to fight.
The armies will never fight willing
ly again, because they are far too big,
complicated, bureaucratically organiz-
ed, comfortable, brightly uniformed.
nicely pensioned. War, henceforth.
will be fought by small Powers, by
barbarous Powers, and by Powers with
no armies worth mentioning. Where
there are genuine, big, splendidly or
ganized, first-class armies there will
be no war. The armies are not such
fools.
The first clue to the discovery that
armies do not want to fight was given
by Russia's minister Of war, Sukhom-
linoff, who made the novel declaration
that militancy (that is, the fighting
spirit), is the very opposite Of pilitar-
ism (that is) the army spirit. Suk-
homlinoff, Of course, does MT say that
Russia's army will not fit~ht-that
would cost him his job. But in his
comments on a lecture delivered to ar
tillery officers at wilma, he said much
the same thing.
He said that great dangers for a
fighting spirit lie in organization, red
tape, Journalism and bureaucratic
methods, all Indispensable things In
the management Of an army machine
like Russia's, which controls a million
and a half men. The organizing spirit
and the fighting spirit are opposite, in
compatible things. The old Russian
military spirit was the fighting spirit.
That led to the conquests Of the 18th
century, and the brilliant campaigns
of Suvoroff, greatest Of mere fighting
men. This stage Is now passing. The
army which fought in Manchuria was
admirably organized, but its fighting
spirit was weak. 1t was all organiza-
ton. "The danger of a modern army
is that it may fall victim to its own
perfection"
This thesis was applied to Turkey
by the lecturer, Staff officer Ilinsky.
He dated the downfall Of Turkeys
military power to the day when the
Turks tried to organize. They pro-
duced a staff Of fairly well-educated
clerk officers" who kept regimentai
accounts much better than did the old
Turks, but who could not and did not
want to fight. The more they reform
ed the more helpless they ogt.
The ill-organized Turks Of 1S77-Ts
resisted for over year the vast Rus
sian armies but the "Germanized ar
my Of 1912 went down before hand
full of petty states. The Turks In 1872
did not want to fight. They have got
a we'll organized corps Of bourgeois,
peaceful officers, whose only aim Is to
draw their monthly pay and to serve
long enough for pensions. Europe's
armies resemble them in that the or
ganization is an end in itself. 1t must
not be spoiled. Fighting would spoil
it; and therefore, there must be no
fighting"
Sukhomlinoff's theory that militar-
ism is killing militancy has been much
of late in the Austrian and German
army press. Militarism, it Is admitted,
is spreading. The typical continental
great state Is becoming, in all Its re-
lations, merely branch Of the army.
But such states and such armies have
no desire to fight. The moore deeply
rooted the militarism, the less wish
there is to put the system to the war
test.
vhi!. .agm thmarf itrmilq misFVfeTT
In Germany the army, or military
spirit is undoubtedly higher than ever.
The military caste is absolutely on top.
But there is no sign Of miltancy. Com
manding generals are appointed be-
cause they are good administrators,
who see that their men are properly
fed and who save for the state as much
as possible out Of the annual uniform
allowance. The head Of the war de-
partment is never a fighting man.