The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1903-1961, 1915-08-21
By Robert NJ. Johnston
Assistant Professor Of History. Harvard
Univeuity.
lin an Address)

TN such an age Of technical accomplishment
a. this It u curious to reject that apart
= from Germany and In a less degree three or
possibly four other European countries. war 10
. comparatively unknown subject
10 was natural enough that In the old educa-
ton. now In course OF being relegated TO the
scrap heap. IL should not have occupied a place.
Philosophy and theology. jurisprudence and
medicine. rightly engaged the attention OF those
who brought Europe out OF the chaos OF the
Invasions into the era OF the Reformation and
into that Of Industrialism. War was the bush
ness Of a small class; economic conditions held
It down to restricted scale; and II remained
rudimentary on the intellectual side.
But In the last one hundred and nfty year,
conditions have changed with lightning rapidly.
Economic progress. the increase OF wealth. the
development Of rapid communication and the
naturalization OF armies have created a con-
dition In which war concerns q large proper
ton OF the population directly. and indirectly
the whole population; and from its size and
complexity II demands an intellectual training
and effort greater than that put Into any other
phase OF human activity.
In q few countries this fact has been recog'
nized, and as the result OF q process covering
many years the technical methods OF war have
been studied and slowly mastered war mas
become an applied science. with an even greater
practically OF thought or realism p%ulsstins
behind Il than we ind In those schools OF ap-
piled chemistry or physics that are fast becom-
ing the central power OF our great universities.
But in England and In the United States this
f. not so. We cherish the fond belief that boys
OF twenty can be taught to handle armies at
West Point or Sandhurst. We ignore the In
tellectual side OF war. We even refuse to be-
lieye In the possibility OF war while around us
the world Is burning: and we turn a blind eye
on those great movements OF population, agri-
culture and industry, that are the fast-breeding
factors OF struggles more gigantic and bitter
than those Of many centuries past. And while
sources to the immediate purpose Of business.
we display In matters pertaining to the most
important OF all businesses that OF maintaining
our existence-a boundless and versatile igno-
rance and folly.
In the United States army there is no syste-
matte teaching OF the military art worthy of the
name save In our cadet school at West Point
winch trains the sublieutenant In the ele-
mentary parts OF the subject, and save where
an Isolated individual like my colleague, Captain
Conger, now teaching in our Summer school.
happens to shed an isolated fash OF brilliant
light on the tenebrous shades around him.
WAr Not Understood
in England or America.
Now. war to-day means q struggle for eco
nomic existence. II Is a business proposition
OF the most intense possible sort. England Is
showing previously at the present moment how
futile an emergency preparation for war may
prove. And her trouble Is not with men, not
with material, and not even with ammunition.
though these are all important matters. her
trouble lies In ignorance. She is attempting a
huge technical Job that can only be carried
through by a large stan OF technical experts.
and from the War Department down to our
good Harvard boys who so easily obtain com.
missions over there. the plain fact Is that her