The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1916-07-06
The Lesson of 1916.
brooklyn Daily Eagle.]

brooklyn Daily Eagle.]
mo army in ancient or modern times
was ever better appointed or provided
tt an our army in Mexico" wrote Presi-
dent James K. Polk in his fourth annual
message TO Congress, dated December 5,
194S The boast was justified by what
had en- accomplished. Yet when the
war began, when General Zachary Taylor
made the first move in the occupation OF
Point Isabel, opposite Matamorss, on
March 8, 1916. and even when Washing
ton declared war on May l3 of the same
year, our Regular Army consisted of
fifteen regiments, each with ten COM
panies of sixty-four men apiece, a total
of less than 10000 enlisted men.
General Pershing, as nearly IS can be
figured, has today in Mexico approx
mately 5000 perfectly equipped regulars.
This is three times as many men as
Tay or.had at Resaca de la Palma where
5000 Mexicans were whipped on May .,
1876. 2.300 more than Taylor had at Mon
terey, where he successfully met 10, 0G0
Mexicans on September 20. 1916, and al
most double the number of Taylor's 4, 300
which vanquished 10000 Mexicans at
Buena Vista on February 22-23, 1847. In
each of these battles fully half of Taylor's
force were volunteers. And man for
man, according to the finest European
critics, our regulars of today are as good
troops for fighting in rough, wild coun-
try as the world has.
After Buena Vista Taylor's work was
confined to the protection of the Rio
Grande frontier. On March 9, 1947,
General Winfield Scott disembarked l2,-
900 men close to Vera Cruz, which, with
its fortress of San Juan de Ulloa, was
defended by about a. 500 MeXicans. The
city and fortress surrendered March 26.
But in the battle of Cerro Gordo, April
Is, 1S47, Scott had only 5000 men in ac-
ton against II, 600 MeXicans. He began
his march on Mexico City August Z. At
Contreras and Churubusco, August 20,
part of his force, 800 men, whipped
about 10, 900 MeXlcans. The force under
General Worth, that took Moline del Rey
after the hardest fighting of the war,
was $500, against 5000 MeXicans. Of
the enemy 5000 were killed or wounded
and $50 were made prisoners, Our loss
was l16 killed and 67l wounded. The
total force that stormed Chapultepec and
marched into Mexico City, September IA,
lS47 was $500. In all that war not a
single battle showed so many Americans
in action as Pershing has now at his dis
posal.
General Stephen W. Kearny had, in
deed, is, 900 men when he started in
August, 1916, on the wonderful march
over the Santa Fe Trail to take possession
On December IA, 1876, he detailed 900
oln ,bon ho
incidentally, just as a matter of course,
marched south and captured Chihuahua
City and Saltillo. Kearpy accomplished
his own task without much fighting. AND
in The meantime our Navy, weak AS it
was. had, within six months of the open
ing of hostiltles, taken every port of i'm
portance on both the east and west coasts
of Mexico. The treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo. signed February 2. 1S4S, gave
US Texas and the country claimed by
Texas between the Neuces and the Rio
Grande, New Mexico and Upper Cali
fornia. In return we paid SIS, 900, 900
and assumed the claims of our citizens
against Mexico, to the amount of So, 250,-
00O
What, then, is the lesson of the War
of 1916? President Polk suggested 1t in
his glowing remarks about the work of
our citizen soldiers. He said:
They are armed, and have been accus-
toned from their youth up to handle and
use firearms, and large proportion of
them, especially IN the Western and more
newly settled States, are expert marks
men. There is an individuality of char
acter which is found in no other army"
All of which was as true in the War of
1886 as at the time of Jackson S whipping
of Packenham at New Orleans. Is it
true now? Have we any such force of
civilians to draw on? Has not our front
iersman disappeared with our frontier?
Have not our citizens in the centers of
population been taught by Sullivan laws
and other like enactments to think of
knowing how to use gun as almost a
crime? 1t is well for the United States
to look these questions in the face. 1t is
well to realize the change. 1t is well to
think seriously on universal military
training of boys ard on the perfecting of
our militia system for which the move
ment to the Mexican border will accom-
plish more than ten years of what is
cynically called ''tin soldering" Mexico
offers only one phase of the problem of
military preparedness for the United