The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-18

In every war in which We have ever
 engaged we have had to train our ar
 mics before they could fight. In every one our losses in battle and from sick
 ness has been far greater than 1t should have been. and the war pro- longed far beyond a reasonable time. All this has been due to the one fact that we have never had n reserve army of trained men to draw upon.
 With short sightedness that Is hard to understand, we have allowed ourselves 10 be caught in exactly the same condition with each succeeding war. And now, in case we should find ourselves in the middle of the great est war Of all history wef will be re- beating the same old performance.
 It Is only right that we should have to depend upon volunteers. We have no desire for a large shInding army and so shall always dep end upon our citizens But We are sJArely counting dlsaster in not training our citizens
 better than We do. PraNAdent Wilson's oft-quoted speech as to our dependence upon "citizenry traitaed and accus- tomade to arms" exprtsses the situa- ton. We certainly Wall have to de- pend upon our citizenrh. but how many of them are trained and accustomed to arms?' How ma6y know how to load and fire a high blower rifle? How many could take care of themselves
 and keep off the rlfcI list in actual service? How many have even learned the most essential t5f all military les sons--obedience to, orders and respect for authorityo
 National Gu ird Is Answer
 The one answer to his problem lies in the national ttuard In this body of about 1200e0 hmen Uncle Sam main- 1 tains traininTs school for soldiers In the ranks of the various regiments Arl fsa 1,.4s,, A.
 selves and tfghr homes in case of need. If they are incidentally having good time While learning they are merely fulfllhg another purpose of the organization. Why the number Is not many times greater than it Is is hard to und Gstand. The direct cause Is, of couHsA public indifference and lack of Yyderstanding. but why this should be fis puzzling. As Kiplng said |:
 maxim Hrock O uniforms that guard you whlis You sleep, is cheaper than them uniforms. an there starvation cheap"
 No ms n worthy of the name wants Whr No one cares to see his coun- trymen slaughtered or to see them siaughfer other men. But with recent events fresh in his memory, what man can pI omise that we may not be forced at any moment to take up arms? And Tn tf at event how desperate will be eic leed TOT tfdlned men ana now few Will there be available.
 We still hear great deal about this peu IS "a nation of riflemen." Some pes pie seem to have overlook ed the fat tt that times have changed since Al ldrew Jackson's day, and that the d' sscendants of his sharpshooters can no longer drive tacks" with a rifle hey somehow fail to grasp the fact 7 that nowadays soldier must be able to let daylight through his enemy not
 at 100 but 1000 yards, and that he must , have some knowledge of modern weap- ons in order to be able to do it. And 1t is time every able bodied man was learning something about them The national guard in Birmingham has been doing its work for years, doing 1t in the face of Encouragement and actual opposition. The members have always realized that their work was not appreciated, but they have gone on with it just the same, partly because of love of the work itself and partly from patriotic motives It has so far been impossible to enlist the interest of the average citizen in the national guard. This is probably as | much due to selfishness as to beau tifully optimistic belief that this coun- | try would never need soldiers. We ! have been having our Hast war" for | 100 years, and even now there are i those who insist that when the present | European horror is over there will
 never be another.
 Avoid Unpleasant Facts
 | We have always been beset with | those cheerful persons who can never see further than their noses, and who, ostrich like, avoid unpleasant facts by sticking their heads in the sand. There are others who believe that the best way to avoid trouble Is to render our | selves helpless. In other words to disarm so thoroughly that we could not be kicked into a fight with anybody. | Also there are those who claim that the way to have everlasting peace is
 to be so kind and so gracious, and so pitifully and asininely and hope lessly humble that no nation would
 have the heart to be rude to us. One of these even goes so far as to advise
 that in case we are ever invaded, not to resist but to invite the invaders to dinner We would thus make them so
 ashamed of themselves and of their
 rough. rude ways that they would pack | right up and go home again.
 These excellent and well meaning people seem to have already forgotten | recent history. The main trouble with
 their theories is that they won't work. Poor little Belgium hasn's yet made anybody ashamed of himself for de- stroying her. any more than the South African republics could make anybody
 ashamed of having destroyed them. One outrage happened a year ago and the other about 13 years ago. but in both cases the conqueror is still in possession. Somehow poor old China can't make 1t work either for every time she tries this kind of pacifst stuff some nation, usually Japan steps up and snatches another strip of ter ritory. Yet nthe face of such ex- amples the men who would do their part in putting this country into a
 position for defense are hampered and
 harried by just such arguments as these.
 Among those who believe in put