The Ronan pioneer. [volume] (Ronan, Mont.) 1910-1970, 1915-01-29

| has sped beyond advance IN danger;
that wars will now he decided BY long
range guns demoIislling inallimate mat
ter. with minimum exposure of human
| lives: a crash of metal rather than OF
| flesh and bone.
y Ritled cannon. shrapnel and grape
and canister We're the nineteenth cen
fury answer to the bayonet. which had
doubled or tr.bled the death dealing
power OF the man behind the musket.
The repeating rifle gave the individual
man long range canister to answer the
short range artillery canister. Later
repeating rifle answered repeating rifle:
then came the machine gun to drown
both repeater and canister fire.
Modern Tactics Safer.
Increased deadliness of firing does
not imply that the ''windrows OF
dead" known in the days of spear and
battleaX must return to the modern
battlefield. In field artillery alone the
bullet proof shield for gunners indi-
Gates the protective side in modern
equipment. In the civil war when the
infantryman's bayonet was outfOught
by canister from "A field battery he
took to cover and shot down the en-
emy's gllnners and battery horses. In
the sixties the log rampant and shall.
low trench behind We're the answer
to shrapnel and hurting she'll in Il pro-
tracted fight like the Aisne- User tine
of 1914 a modern concealed trench is
far ahead of logs and dirt rampant to
protect men. Not alone devices for
covering fighting men tend to mini,
mize mortality but tactics work for
the same end. RusheS of dozens led
by a sergeant carry forward under fire
the thousands which formerly charged
en- maSse
Secretary of =, rr Garrison says that
it is much more difficult to kill men in
battle nowadays than is generally sup
posed. Medical reports of the. Russo
Japanese war. he says. SHOW that out
of every hundred casualties 81 per
cent Were caused by bullets: also that
in that war it took 10000 bullets to
kill one man. Another authority says
that it took .O:,3 rifle shots 10 put one
Japanese out Of the fight in 1904
whereas in the Franco-l'rl>sian WA,
in 1870 one bullet in every 80 found
it's mark.
Next +" bullets come artillery shots
in effectiveness In 1870 it required
eighty French shots, weight $50
pounds. tn disable one German, but IN
1904 l;M shots weight nearly one ton
were fired to disable one Russian.
Appalling accounts of slaughter. es
pecinlly of Germans. have been given
but ut their worst Geek Tepe in the
Russo-Turkish war of 1881 leads III
carnage. With hreechlonders LOOK,
Russians slew 5000 Turks in on"
hour. Dead hnttle lines have been IT.
ported in the western zone The writ
or saw one such ut Antietam in lS'i.
when General llOOkerS guns tn the
number O1 thirty swept With canister
a thirty acre field OF standin. corn
I'm his official report Hooker said ain
the time | am writing every stalk OF
corn in the northern and greater part
of the field was cut AIS closely as could
tie done with knife" Along the.
northern fence of that field lay wp|l
aligned. over Il thousand dead in gray
Prisoners Counted In Losses.
1t appears from analysis of reports
of losses in Europe that when given in
gross for any battle or campaign the
.,1
missing" Where the classes are sep
urated, as in the English and German
reports. the ratio of killed to wounded
does not suggest cnrnivalS OF slaughter
In, the Belgium to Paris campaign in
August and September the total for the
British was about $4,000. October to
December. in western Belgium. the rec
ord was about $4,000. The British orig
inally mustered 10000 strong: increns.
ed later to 100000 total. it's loss Of S4-
600 amounts to % per cent.
The French and Relgians also lost
10000 in western Belgium out of ap.
proXimately 100000. The allies esti-
mate the Germans in Belgium at 5oO.-
900 and doubtless wouldn't own to SUI
peror numbers opposed, therefore their
losses of 100000 may be computed on
100000 or less, hence at least 20 per
cent
Russians report "heavy losses" by
Germans in their frontal attacks before
Warsaw in December and name 10000
rs safe aggregate. Elsewhere they
place the German strength at 100000
If SD the loss was but little over per
cent. which is insignificant for series
Of battles. Assuming that only 100000
men were involved. the loss was 20 per
cent, therefore not phenomenal.
IA Military Lessons.
The old and very Obvious lesson that
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