Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1917-10-25
WAR TALKS
By UNCLE DAN
Number -Four
Military Training Necessary for Safety
and Defense.
Number Four

| "Say, Uncle Dam" said Billie. "Jim-
| ME and / have been looking up about
war in the encyclopedia at school. We
! found that in the war between Ger
many and France in 1S7O-71, Germany
| lost in killed and wounded $4,000 SOL
diers while France lost about six times
| as many, and besides that, she lost
| every battle. We asked Professor SIo-
/ cum why this was. He said that the
| German army was highly trained and
ably commanded, while the French
soldiers were poorly trained; and that
their war department was honey
combed with jealousy and politics :;
| that the officers were not much good
and that's why France lost the war
and SO many men. What do you think
about it, Uncle DAMP"
WELL" said Uncle Dan, Professor
Slocum is right. By ineff1ciency France
lost that war, together with two of
her best provinceS-Alsace and Lor-
raine-and had to pay d billion dol
lars indemnity money. France today
learned her lesson by that sad expe-
rience, so she put in universal military
training, and as q result, her soldiers
now know how to fight and how to
protect themselves. They are losing
less men in the war than the Germans.
France also put politics out of her war
department, so that expert authority,
instead Of bureaucratic stupidity, now
directs the army. The result is,
France has one of the best and most
efficient armies every assembled, and
this shows what thorough training and
good leadership means in warfare.
This saved France in this crisis, as
we'll as the liberties of the world"
LAS war is now conducted, there Is
no place for an unframed man. A
body of 10000 well trained soldiers
properly handled sould defeat five
times their number of raw recruits and
do it every time with comparatively
small loss to themselves. Proper train
ing alone will reduce the death and
casualty rate one-third of what it 9TH
erWise would be, and right here is an
unanswerabie argument for universal
military training.
Our government has no moral right
to force her men into war service
without properly training them for it.
70 do so is simply murder, hence the
frantic effort that is now being made
to give her soldiers some training be-
fore they are sent to the front. If we
are to win this war, it will take trained
men to do it, and it will take trained
men to win any other war that may
come upon us in the future. II we
must fight, let US fight to win and not
to lose.'
That's the stuff" said Billie.
Continuing, Uncle Dan said: sour
government has expended about $780,
100000 to put up environments and
training stations in order to train the
men called by the selective draft.
When these men are trained the train
ing stations should be Immediately
filled with younger men, say those in
their nineteenth year, to receive six
months of intensive military train
ing along the lines of the Chamberlain
bill. This will be Of Unreasonable
benefit to them individually. It will
do them more good than any other two
years of their whole life; it will make
them strong, manly, self-reliant, quick
to see and quick to act; it will equip
them for a successful life. In short,
1t will rebuild American manhood and
will also give the government a body
of trained men to draw from in case
it is necessary to defend our flag and
country. We must settle this question
of universal military training imme-
diateIy, otherwise these training camps
may be demolished. The adoption Of
universal military training will be no.
tice to the world that from then on
we will be prepared to defend our
selves promptly and efficiently, and
this will do more to keep us out Of
war in the future than anything else
we could do
do you think, brother" said Mrs.
Graham, that there will ever be an
other WARP"
81 have no doubt about it," said
selfish, so long as nations are ambi-
~tious to acquire territory, so long as
population presses and demands more
room, so long as there remains
scramble for world trade-so long wars
will be. When the time comes that
we reach the high plane for which we
hope and dream, when all will recog
nize the fatherhood of God and the
brotherhood of man, then, and then
only, will wars cease. When that day
comes doors will need no locks, banks
will need no vaults to protect their
treasures, but that day is long way
off.
THE only safe and sane plan Is to
be able to defend ourselves at all
times. Therefore, every citizen should
insist that senators and congressman
shall provide for universal military
training, so that never again shall the
country be caught so completely I'M
ready as this war found US. For
tunately, in this use, our enemy has
been held back, so we have had a few
months in which to prepare. This ad
vantage probably will never come
again. 1t is however our salvation
today.
Because she was ready, Switzerland