Mohave County miner. [volume] (Mineral Park, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1882-1918, 1917-04-28
DOES GERMANY BELIEVE
We CANNOT PRODUCE
AN ARMY =?

reported last week as saying that no
American army could help the allies in
the present war, and as further say
ing that in our civil war FIVE hundred
thousand men were lost because
neither side had, at the beginning of
the conflict, a trained, disciplined
army.
Still Germany learned many valu-
able lessons from that war Of ours.
One was to mass cavalry and make
it a distinct division of the army, the
same as the infantry and artillery;
another was the adoption of Grants
idea of keeping all the armies in a
great war so disposed as to prevent
the reinforcement of any particular
army that was being assailed.
When the war closed and the grand
review of the victorious armies of the
republic was held in Washington, a
distinguished British officer watched
as hour after hour the ranks of the
men in blue swept past those who
were reviewing the long professions.
Then, when it was over, he declared
that Europe had better dressed armies
and armies where the little details of
discipline were more carefully observ-
ed, but that there was no army in the
world that, in all the essentials of
fighting men, compared with the grand
army of the republic.
Again, when France, Germany,
Great Britain, Japan and the United
States sent detachments from their re-
spective armies to Picking to suppress
the Boxer uprising, another British
officer said: "For three or four days
the Amerisan detachment was the ridi-
cule of all the others. They marched
in irregular-like civilians rather than
soldiers; they were careless in their
attire and seemed more like a mob
than detail of trained soldiers. But
one morning early, the Boxers in
heavy force attacked our front, their
immediate assault being directed
against the American contingent.
"Then we witnessed a transforma-
ton. Those careless men were all in
perfect alignment; their steps changed
from those of men to those of tigers;
at intervals of three or four minutes
they dropped upon one knee and, tax
ing swift aim, fired their volleys;
then up and on again, and at about
the fourth or fifth volley the enemy
threw down their arms and precipi-
lately fled; and then after giving one
cheer of triumph, those men dropped
back into their old careless ways as
though nothing had happened. There
was no more discounting the Amerl-
can command on that march"
The one thing the German critic
cannot understand it that American
soldiers have some attributes peculiar
to themselves alone. These are parti-
ally, at least, nereQlCary.
1t required nearly three hundred
years to clear the wilderness between
the Atlantic and the Pacific. All the
way the van of the great army of oc-
cupation moved on against extraordi-
nary hardships and dangers. They
moved, so to speak, with a bible in one
hand and a rifle in the other. nj the
rude homes on the frontier the mothers
of each succeeding generation, having
given up the innocent longings that
come to woman's heart, toiled on.
There was woman's fearless eye
Lit by her deep loves truth"
Those three hundred years of
danger and toll and hardship had their
effect. The American people are not
quite like any other people, but when
duty calls they respond nobly. And
should there be a call for a division
or corps or an army to go to Europe,
the soldiers comprising the conetin-
gent might not upon their arrival
there compare in many things with
the European troops. But should they
be called to the battle line, the &C.
count they will make of themselves
will forever silence all criticism OF
them.-Goodwin's Weekly.