Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-01-23


their sides or through the opening made
in the sides for them.
BY night the enemy might have more
than the total mobile force OF the United
States regular army ashore. His aero
planes would be coursing far and near !:
those members of the local population
who belonged to his spy system would
come in to report to the enemy command
er the location of our forces.
Concentrated at one point. knowing
precisely our situation and precisely
what he was going to do, all the adj
vantage of initiative would be with the
invader. We should have to conform
to his plans-not he to ours. Prob
ably he would find nothing in front of
him except the Rhode Island National
Guard. Wouldn't every state demand
that its guard be kept at home for local
defense? Isn't that what the guard is
for,
Fake Landings Delude Troops.
Literally every rod of the coast of
England is patroled against any raid
or surprise-this, when the German
navy is bottled up and the British navy
commands the sea. Who will do the
of our own coast? The enemy
may land in five or six different places.
He may make two or three fake
landings. where he puts his troops
ashore for a day or two. long enough
to set ours in motion toward the point
before he withdraws overnight and
sails away. That little regular army
of ours would be baited from all sides
without knowing which way to march.
If it rushed toward every point of
alarm it would be whipped around the
post without accomplishing anything
The best it could do would be to form
a center of mobilization and wait for
the enemy to show his hand. Indeed.
to attempt to resist the landing with
our present military forces would be
utter folly We could not afford to
risk our nucleus of an army in that
fashion. All our army might be pre-
pairing to defend Norfolk and Washing
ton when the enemy was withdrawing
from that region and striking his main
blow toward New York and Boston. He
would have his immense fleet of ships
and we should be dependent upon rail-
road trains Besides. we could hardly
mobilize our troops from our scattered
posts before the enemy was well on his
should need point of concentration
in order that our scattered forces
might be whipped into something like
a homogeneous working organization.
Valley Forge Experience Repeated.
1t would not do to send them out in
detail to be beaten by the enemy. Then
we should have no nucleus remaining.
There would be nothing left as a basis
for building a larger army Of volun-
ton at Valley Forge over again. Prob
ably no wise commander who had our
present military establishment would
attempt to risk battle this side of the
Alleghenies. He might try to harass
the enemy with guerilla irregulars and
He could not resist the enemy's main
force, not even to protect Washington,
after what Europe has taught us of
the CELEBRITY of modern armies. There
would be scuttliEg of congressman
and a rush of clerks to get archives on
board railroad trains, and the PreS-
dents special would run in the dead of
night through an amazed and panic
stricken land to the new White House
in Cincinnati. Cleveland or Louisville.
OF course. the enemy would have
foreseen precisely what was going to
happen. He would have counted upon
the advantage of our confusion as the
result of his sudden blow This is
part of the simplest provision of mill
tary powers which organize in peace
for sudden blows with the modern ma
chinery of war. which requires so
much time to create.
A screen of infantry and guns ard
machine guns would protect his estab-
lishment of his base securely Soon
his cavalry would be sweeping across
country. his motor machine guns ard
motor cycle scouts would be running
along the roads. His planes would
hover over New York and Boston,
dropping a few bombs to keep the fire
department busy and to prevent the
population from becoming too com
placent-not to mention a few bombs
on the concentration camp, which
would be somewhat chaotic. as no
preparations for its establishment had
been made before the war Then, when
the enemy had his great force ready.
as ready as that which burst the bar
rier of Maubeuge and Namur through
Belgium into France, ready as the Bull
garians were when they Jumped"
Serbia, or the British navy was
ready. oh, quite ready-it would take
the road. brushing aside any OPPOSE
ton with overpowering numbers and
machinery while its cavalry and its
motor machine guns swept around
New York as Jeb Stuart swept around
McClellans army. blowing up railroad
culverts and dropping the spans OF
bridges.
Big Coast Guns Valueless,
Then one morning the rattle of the
milk trains would not be heard on
their way to morning coffee and to the
n,
All railroad traffic with New York
would have ceased. A zone of the
wooden houses of our suburbs in
fames-so very infammable compared
to those of Europe-would form an
other siege line. provided that there
were guerilla resistance Every one
VINO tried to pass would find himself
raced by sentry as the enemy army
drew in it's lines. What next? The
enemy communicative chief would send
for the mayor of New York who would
come, as Max of Brussels came. Like
Max, he might send out word without
waiting for an invitation. He would
plead for his city-the second city in
size in the world.
But we will have the big guns of
our coast defenses," he would say. "You
have not yet brought the main BODY
OF your army in range of them or of
the guns of our navy, which are at
anchor in the North river"
The communicative chief would smile
with the indulgence Of a military ex-
pert at the politician.
yes. they are excellent guns. those
of your coast defense-and those of
your navy, too" he would say. But
they are to be fired against armored
ships. You have no infantry to defend
your town. You Americans overlooked
the lesson of Namur's fall, and how the
French held Verdun. If one of those
big shells happened to hit our infantry
line il would opIv feu, man II