Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-12-05
WASHINGTON ON PREPAREDNESS
Handicap of Unframed Soldiery Prolonged
Revoution-Experience in Civil War.

handicap OF Unframed SOldIery GrOlOngeu
Revolution-Experience in Civil War.
That trained soldiers are far superior to
unframed soldiers in efficiency and eff
fectiveness is a fact that would seem hard
to deny through any process of reasoning
but there is one such process which arrives
at the conclusion that a soldier is a soldier.
Thus, one man plus one gun equals one
soldier, and that ends the matter. Colonel
Swinton Of the Intelligence Department of
the British eXpedtionary forces in France
and Belgium thinks that this mistake is
important enough to be corrected, and
though he illustrates what he has to say on
the subject by citing the great losses of the
new German formations on the battle line in
Belgium his remarks apply to the military
force of any nation which, in an emergency,
has to send i-trained or even unframed
recruits to the front. That emergency would
arise almost Immediately in this country if
the United States became involved in war.
When we stop to think that our standing
army could be accommodated on the grand
stand of the Yale Bowl. that both our regu-
lar army and our organized militia are main
tanned at less than half war strength and
that we have at present no men to fill up
the ranks of our peace armies we can readily
outbreak of real war. TO train citizens for
the active service to which they might be
called at once Some system by which this
training might be given in advance of such
an eXigency would obtain for our people
what has been called "a social efficiency, a
discipline, a sense of international RESPONSE
bility that guarded and guided by our in
stinctive faith in the ultimate triumph of
justice. will do much to hasten the day of
the parliament of man and the federation of
the world"
Our Civil War should have taught us the
peril of dependence an ill trained or un-
trained soldiery. At the beginning OF that
gigantic struggle both officers and men were
handicapped by lack of knowledge of the
rudlmentary elements of discipline and mill
tary science, The story of the first few
months of that conflict was a story of handi-
cap on both sides, The battle of Bull Run
left the victors only less dsorganized than
the defeated. Those first months showed the
Confederacy and the Union that a man and a
gun do not make soldier.
Washington had some woeful experiences
with an army OF militia soldiers who were
impatient with the discipline which might
have made them efficient and who were
utterly dsmayed at any prospect of having
to stay on the job after campaign had
moved from the nelghborhood of their own
homes. Following the defeat on Long Island
great numbers left the ranks dismayed-"in
some instances" as Washington wrote to the
President of Congress, almost by whole
regiments, by half ones, and by companies
at time"
If Washington could have had at his back
through the campaign in New Jersey an
army OF militia which had been trained, not
only in the forms of military service but in
appreciation of the patriotic function of that
service, there would have been no Valley
Forge. This is what he wrote after several
years Of hard experience;
Had we formed a permanent army In the
beginning which had been CAPABLE
of discipline We never should have had TO
retreat with a handful of men across the
Delaware in 1776 trembling for the fate OF
America. We should not have been under
the necessity = of fighting Brandy
wine with an unequal number OF raw troops
and afterWard seeing Philadelphia fan a prey
10 victorious army We should not nave
been at Valley Forge ss destitute of
everything. in a situation neither 10 resist
nor 70 retire. We should not have
been the greatest part OF the war inferior ia
the enemy, Indebted for our safety to their
inactivity. enduring frequently the mortiaea-
ton of seeing opportunities 10 ruin tbar,
pass for want OF a force which the country
Was able 20 afford. and OF seeiPg the country
rayaged, our towns burnt the inhabItants
lundered. abused. murdered with impunitv
from the same cause"