The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1903-1961, 1915-08-21
Proper Preparation for War Considered as a Business Asset
adr Roet MhH@n LhMnd HmadU University Presents an Interesting Lws of War as Struggle for
- Important of Ali Bmnew-Tht of MnanngO Dur Existence"

not more than o~netenth Of that distance. ThiA
together with factors governed by the choice
OF ground for combat. which there is not time
enough TO discuss. meant that the army OF
those days was a fairly compact and handy
mass. that the held OF battle was apt TO be
merely a glorihed manoeuyring ground. ana
that a single officer might from the saddle
survey 4 whole battle and issue all the neces.
sary and signals for the evolutions
Of the noops engaged.
or scientific training for command or OF sy%
tematic stan work there was little or none.
Only In the army OF Prussia was there any
training OF company officers: In those of other
TO rank and influence. A good issue depended
chiefly. therefore. on the combination OF a com
mander OF long experience or military genius
with troops SO well drilled by professional nom
commissioned snicers that they could carry out
concerted manoeuvres with cohesion and yigor.
relying TO a very slight extent on the skill or
initiative OF their company. or even OF their
regimental officers. How vastly different from
the present day, when the system OF
organization. the technical training Of the
officer. material. count for almost everything.
and the mere soldier for so very little. Let US
see how. in the growth Of war. these changes
have taken place.
From the close OF the Seven Years War In
1888 10 the outbreak OF the wars OF the Revolu-
ton. in 1872. and from 1892 to the fail of
Napoleon In 1915. We have related periods OF
great change. in the first OF these there Is In
France and England a sudden expansion OF
trade and population. the beginning Of the in
dustrial revolution and OF the era OF road ana
canal building. In terms military this meant
improved means for transporting armies and
improved material.
In the matter OF material, substantial. almos,
revolutionary Improvements were made in field
artillery and in the effectiveness OF shell Are
And the zone Of FIRE that might be developed on
a battle front was so much deepened and in
tensited that revised tactical theories OF the
three arms were taught in the French artillery
schools before the period of war began in which
they were 10 find their application
Capitalism, naturally enough. grew with the
increased intensity OF military effort. The
history of the intimate relations OF capitalism
with war since the first great influx OF American
gold and silver into Europe is a curious and in.
teresting one. (Werner Sombart's "Krieg und
kapitalismus.") SPANS great military power
in the sixteenth century reposed on the gold
and silver metal her galleons brought from the
New World. The naval supremacy which Eng
land imposed on Louis XIV. and on Napoleon
reposed on a fourishing system of trade and OF
finance that gave her unequalled
resources In money and credit. A Jewish
banker was Marlborough's secret counsellor in
the field, and the Napoleonic wars made the
fortune OF the Rothschilds.
Parallel with this mobilization OF capital and
food supply there came a complication in the
problems OF transporting and controlling or
commanding armies. And the only way TO
solve these problems, which have SO far grown
these past hundred years that now they In
volve the economic-military mobilization OF
the whole nation. was by scientific organiza-
ton. by the creation OF large bodies of trained
experts: in other words, by an intellectual effort.
BY education. by division OF labor. Napoleon
Bonaparte, concentrated on his personal ambi-
tons and problems. effected little along these
lines. II is true that he organized France and
rendered her capable OF developing a far
greater military energy than in the preceding
epoch. But this energy was TO serve the pur.
poses OF an individual genius. not OF the nation:
so that the organization always tended TO
atrophy at the head and the armies OF France
were held down TO one man control. when they
had wholly o~utgrown this conception OF the
conduct Of war and required the guidance OF