The daily Alaskan., 1917-12-29

duetion lutO TEis Country.
 Cons,r!p,lon originated in France m l7qS. At tEut time the country had lust passed through tie long and h,oody war of tEe French revolution, which the mouarchS of Europe had banded together to crush. France, un' der Napole0n, had come forth victori- ous. but her army was exhausted anu it was evident that some new system oS recruiting would be net essaFy' as volunteer enlistment no longer snuiceu'
 If WAS then that General Jourdah brought Ioidn &uL passed the law es' tabllshlug couscriptiOn. Since then II has been tue basis of all French mill rsry lcgiSmtiou and, 10 certain eA' tent. or that oi all other countries
 If WAS through tue terrible power of consrriptiun lhaI Napoleon was ehaolea 10 carry on the gizunlc wars when characterized hls reign and by means of 1t, after losing in the snows or tus- s!a the largest army that up till that time had ever been put Into the neiu' to reappear few months later with another army almost as large.
 Out of necessity the other nations were forced to follow Frances exam ple and conscriptiUn became general
 Under the French regime every citi- zen between the ages of twenty and twenty-five was liable to service for five years. Prussia. however. still fur ther developed the powers of conscrip- tion by reducing the period of service In the ranks and passing her soldiers as soUu u, they We're sufficiently train ed into u reserve lClcC, thus by de- srccs truia.G; her whole population.
 This latter system. which was con slderrd as ,rH of the most farreaching and Important events uf the last cen turv. owed it's origin to the conditions imposed uu lyuNstu by Napoleon at the treaty oH TIStt, whereby Prussia was restricted tD.a standing army Of 43,UOO men. SLe Sc., l0 l&r letter of tue law by maintaining hrr army at the pre- scriJed number. but Ter trained citizen reserve force was liritrd only by the population uf rhe country.
 The military history of the United States Is us remarkable Gs the rise and rapid growth ul luc nation itself. In 100. us fixed by 2u act of congress, the rank aud file of our army amount ed to I.2lB men. and in 1874 an English expedition with only $500 men was able 10 seize aud burn Washington.
 Cous.riyliuu first made It's appear, au,e here at ULu time of tue war be- tween the states. At the beginning Of ,ue war iu 1851 our whole regular force WAS but l4uJ1 ucu. At first the north ern army was increased by volunteer enlistment. hut the unexpected pro. Ionga,tun of the War proved this meth, od too slow 10 ryp,eniSh the waste of the armies. and iu lSG3 the govern ment resoytrl Jp a draft.
 The first attempt 10 carry tt out met with fu.eiJ.c rrsi,t@H,e and led to a serious rioc in thl city of New York. which lasted for several days. All op- position. however. was put down and the draft executed with all possible sprbcarauce and juStI-e. Exemptions and substitute purchases were so free lv given iu the north that the draft had little effect except as Il stimulus to he states in bringing to full strength their quotas of volunteers by voting bouutIcS.
 In the south, however. conscription was sweeping from tue first, and to, ward the ead of the war 1t became omulvorous. Every man between the ages of seventeen and tifty-fye was le- galIy liable to service, the oEly excuse being physical in ap&rity.
 The total lumbcr ot men called un. der arms by the government of the United States between April, 1861, and An~N. 1855. amounted to more than 2.75o.000. nearly half of this number being raised by cUnsrriplon. If to this we add the l.1UJ,rCO men from the southern states the total armed force oH tue c1uu,ry at that time amounted to almost 4o00"oo. drawn from pop rlatinn of only 32.HO~O.-Philadelphia Ledger.