New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-27
OUR SHAMEFUL COMPLACENCY
in Part Of Gross Misnepretaton OF the Plain Fact
Of Our Military History.

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: The hour is striking, il it has not al
ready struck, when The Tribune will be
looked TO as the leader Of the thought or
American manhood. Editorial articles like
deliberately Unfriendly" and IAN mconceiv-
able Blunder" are godsend; they are, II
may say so, exactly what thousands Of 1.-The
males that are left" would write if they knew
the art Of expressing themselves so We'll
Many man is looking to-day to The Tribune
| for clearness of vision, strong, right Judg-
ment. courage-"guts." We are sickened, II
the truth were known and bitterly ashamed
of the peace-at-any price mollycoddles, the
fabby takers who trying to stave of they
know not what with means they cannot
themselves explain.
Why is it that any American can believe IN
movements" to halt even the beginning OF
military preparedness, to ask men to pledge
themselves not to enlist in the army or navy
70 teach in the schools that military eff
cheney and organization mean militarism? 1t
is the blind. soft-muscled, soft-hearted weak
lings like these, combined with the Dllnd'
strong men, the men who are afflicted with
blind spot-the American military blind spot
who have afflicted us with curse through
out our whole military history.
From the Revolution until now our school
children have been taught legends and myths
about our military history instead OF facts
I wish The Tribune would serve out few
cold facts about our wars, from Bunker Hill
TO Santiago. At Bunker Hill the Americans
committed great blunder in attempting TO
hold q veritable rat trap-Charlestown Neck
The British general, Howe, against the urgent
advice of Clinton, made an even grosser blum
der Instead of holding the narrow causeway
connecting the peninsula with the mainland
he actually drove the Americans out of the
trap. But before he did this, at great cost,
the Americans, as might be expected, were
able to resist until their ammunition gave
out Hence the false legend, which persisted
almost fatally throughout the Revolution,
that Americans forsooth, did not need organ
ization or training or equipment-that they
had licked" the best troops of Europe, and
could always do so, without military pre-
paredness.
This sinister legend was transmitted TO sue
ceedng generations. 1t was our curse in the
humliatng land operations of 1872; it was
the curse of our failure to attain our object
in the Florida Indian wars it sent Taylor TO
meet the Mexicans at Pslo Alto when they
outnumbered him seven TO one; it caused our
troop. to desert Scott at Cerro Gordo because
their enlistments were up; it made a
wretched fzzle and an appalling waste of life
during the first two years of the Civil War;
and the lesson had TO be learned all over
again in Cuba in 1898 Of course it was
promptly forgotten? Nc, it was never
learned
The asinine people who dream on about
raising a million men before shutdown" are
still saying, after all these bitter lessons-of
which they are profoundly ignorant-that
the Americans have won all their wars with
militia and volunteers" What are the facts
We won the Revolution through the stupidity
Of British generals, through the nucleus OF
Washngton's trained regulars and above all,
\ through munitions sent from France, and the
victory of De Grasse off Cape Henry pre-
ceding Yorktown. We won the War OF 1872
on Lake Erie on Lake Champlain, apd by
our destruction of British commerce on the
4 high seas. We won the Mexican War partly
by sheer luck, partly by the splendid training
Of our very small force of regulars and partly
by naval cooperation that saved the day at
Point Isabel and Vera Cruz-as well as by
the lack of morale among the Mexicans. We
won the Civil War by sheer weight and mass,
j by superior resources, after resorting to
drafting men, after needlessly sacrificing UNI
told blood and treasure, after training and
organizing million men, and even then, only
by blockading the South from CAIRO to New
Orleans, and from Mobile Bay to Fort Fisher.
We won the Spanish war because giant,