The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1915-03-12


Crews were visitors at Arrowrock
Saturday.
mlitiamen refused to cross the Dor
der. Under the constitution they
could only be called upon to resist in
vasion and they made the most o
their constitutional rights. Washing
ton was scorned Although a British
squadron had been cruising up anC
down Chesapeake bay for almost Z
year no troops were assembled for the
defense Of Washington until three
DAYS before the British landed. Il
was described by its commander, Bri
gadier General Winder, as Suddenly
assembled without organization" and
it had neither discipline nor officers OF
the least experience. 1t numbered S.
4Ol, slightly larger than the British
attacking force, and it ran away after
eight men had been killed and eleven
wounded
Fought 1900 Indians Seven Years.
In the inglorious record of Ameri-
can military activities it is interesting
if not gratifying to consider the Semi
mole war, an Indian struggle which
lasted from 1885 to 1872 The United
States lost 4,lol men-within All OF
the number killed in the war of 1872.
And for want of a well-dehned
peace organization General Upton
points out "a nation OF II million
people contended for seven years with
1900 warriors and finally closed the
struggle without accomplishing the
forcible emigration of the Indians,
which was the original and sole cause
of the war"
And still authority was withheld
from the president to increase the size
of the regular army even in the face
of impending war. This error, Gener-
al Upton believed, more than doubled
the cost and the length of our next
war-the struggle with Mexico
1t would indeed require an ardent
patriot to maintain that our unbroken
string Of victories against the Mexi-
cans were not due quite as much to
their deficiencies, cowardice and lack
of skill as to our own proves. The
Mexican war, too, was fought in large
part of raw levies. And it is worth
while to remember that while the old
army, exposed to an unhealthy eli
mate lost 6.75 per cent annually for
more than two years, the new estab-
lishment" lost 10 per cent per annum.
"a fact accounted for in part by Cen
eral Upton by the fact that they were
led by inexperienced officers. In the
Mexican war, as in all struggles that
had gone before, congress made the
of not enlisting men for
the war" They were mustered in
for three months, six months, twelve
months. Twenty-seven thousand men
were so enlisted. 1t was then neces-
sary to enlist thirty-three thousand
men for the war" 1t is thing for
which army officers have pleaded for
time and again. They have pleaded
in vain.
When Thirty Thousand Ran.
lhree months men were mustered
IN during the Civil war, and once
again the inefficiency of raw troops
was demonstrated at the first battle of
Bull Run, when force of thirty thou
sand, large enough to have crushed
Its confederate opponent. ran away,
and left Washington itself in vital
peril. The Civil war lasted four
years; the tritling losses of the Union
troops in the battles and skirmishes
OF 1901 "attested at the beginning of
the war the utter weakness OF a nation
which needed only time to develop
Its resources to take a foremost rank
among the great powers OF the
world"
The gicveous errors which prolonp-
ed the Civil war are too many and too
complicated to be here set down: first
among them, certainly, however, may
be mentioned, unpreparedness- and
yet the Civil war had been coming on
Tor a generation, and men had seen it
for ten years.
We have had one war since then
our brief struggle with Spain. a 4th
rate power. Efficient work on the
part OF the navy did much to make
possible our swift success. The mall
administration of the army was motto
able chiefly in the matter of supplies
and the fact that while less than four
hundred men died in battle, more than
- '''SHoNlAh ASll VIZ lllllS 10 disease.
Never has it been possible for the
United States TO raise a large force of
any efficiency in short time. 1t has
not been essential so far; but Others
than JingoistS have seen the possib;I-
ny OF a great war in which the United
States might become involved, 25OO0
trained soldiers would be on hand TO
defend the country. A million men
undoubtedly would be glad to rush to
arms. Aside from the trifling fact
that know nothing obtout how to han
die them, II is also worth remember
ing that we have no arms for them
TO rush 10.
There was an English King once
named Ethelred the Unready. He
died Just before the Danes took Lon
don. But the Unready might we'll be
preserved as fit congnomen for a