The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1916-03-30
GENERAL SERVICE Is BEST


At the risk of harping continually
on one string, we refer once more tC
the matter Of general military service
for the purpose of demonstrating is
advantage over the so-called voluntary
system as means of national prepar-
edness.
We need no more forcible object
lesson than the contrast between the
:wo allies, Great Britain and France
in the present war. France, where
military training is compulsory to all
has been the mainstay in the long and
grueling warfare in the west Great
Britain, which has depended mostly on
voluntary enlistment, still makes a
sorry showing on land, after twenty
months of war. While the French
move like a well-oiled machine, plant
| ing their blows and warding them off
| like a skilled boxer, the British halt
and stumble and s.agger, doing the
wrong thing in the wrong way at the
wrong time, wasting lives and treas
ure prodigiously and accomplishing
little in any quarter. In spite of the
million or more men sent to The west
ern front, England has not been able
to wrest single vantage point from
the Germans and has barely held her
own. Since the September fighting
her army there has been inert, appar-
emily unable 20 take the offensive.
Were she now to launch heavy drive,
it might mean the salvation of the
hard-pressed French, but the Germans
fear nothing in that quarter. At Gal
lipoli, at Saloniki, in Mesopo.amia it
is the same. The British soldier has
no superior as brave, dogged fighter,
but in this war he is poorly organized,
poorly munitioned, poorly led.
And it is the fault Of the system.
Under the stress of great confics
like this, it seems impossible to enlist,
organize, discipline and equip great
armies. This preparation must pre-
cede the conflict. France prepared,
was ready and, whatever the outcome,
has won greater laurels than ever be-
fore. Great Britain, secure in her
navy, neglected her land forces, de-
pended on the volunteer in case of an
emergency and she and her allies,
who sorely need help from every avail
able quarter, are suffering the newt
able penalty. Like a fettered giant
she cannot use her strength because
she is nos girded for conflict and she
canont spare the time and energy
needed now to prepare, for the stress
is upon her.
In France every man was trained
soldier with his place in the ranks.
When war came he knew he must go
and he went without shirking OF
One thing thai helped
him was the knowledge that everybody
else was going-he did not have to
fight for the other fellow. In England
there has been a tremendous outburst
and those who really burned to fight
had gone and been killed; after Eng
land really saw the seriousness Of it;
there came the hanging back. Glory,
il appeared, was too dear to be bought
at the price. True, very many did
enlist, but not nearly enough, for
every possible man was needed. Some
aid not 90 because other would not.
The married men felt that she single
men should all 90 first, and the single
men didn't look at il the same way.
There was and still is serious dissen- /
sion over the matter with no settle'i
policy ye. agreed upon. Nominally
here is compuIsion law for single .
ucn with Ireland excepted, but the
government stiil relies on such enlist
nents as It can get If the truth
gcrc known, as it will be sometime, +
.he dcplorable ineiicioncy Of the Brit
sh army system would condemn i
ittriy
Baor in mind that both England and
France are dcmocracies, and that it is
he system that igat fault in England,