Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-04-19

The Germans alone knew about
this kind Of war and have prepared
for IT,
West Point neither taught nor knew
anything like 1t except for observation
and recent study. 1t is as new to the
veteran American or English officer
as to the nineteen-year-o old recruits.
This modern fighting Is a matter of
discipline and professionalism-"dis-
cipline" that overcomes excitement,
ignores wounds. endures everything,
obeying orders.
To understand what this war means
you must know that Prussian officer
can rely on his men as though they
were so many posts of steel auto
matically moving or standing, as he
commands.
People ask how soon after they are
enlisted can they be made ready for
this kind of fighting. They are
surprised to hear that three months
prepa ration or six months prepara-
tion is little better than nothing and
guarantees nothing.
What are three or six months Of
discipline in training compared with
the German soldier training and dis
ciplined from the cradle?
Newspaper dispatches talk about
throwing in reserves. but the truth is
that reserves lacking the discipline
Of years can not stand.
In the noise Of bursting shells, in
the intense excitement Of the rush
the officer can not be sure that his
men can absolutely greenD COM
pared with the Germans. will stand,
or see or obey signals. or know what
they are doing.
1t Is not a question OF courage. but
of discipline, that absolutely conquers
nerves.
The German soldier, an automaton
of discipline, stays where you put him
or goes where you want him to 90.
and after a bullet has struck him he
still looks for his signal. and obeys 1t
exactly as though he had not been
hit
Not on,y tho cerman so,dier in tho
field but the whole German nation,
the public. fathers and mothers, men
In public life. have all alike been
trained and disciplined from their
The German nation works
now in one direction, like one single
Prussian soldier going forward in
bayonet charge. Germany does not
discuss or give orders-she obeys.
Here in America you have all kinds
OF men, from Mr.. Roosevelt down,
telling the president what he must do
and how the war must be won. You
have women, and prohibitionists, and
clergymen and various societies giving
orders to the head Of the nation.
You have the peoples representa-
tives In congress criticising and at
lacking everything. especially the
ccm:.Ss sssr.;2 .chssr sr-Nss.soSsasre dick
pline, like individual discipline. is not
known.
Germany is fighting with complete
reliance on every citizen ut home, on
every organization, every inhabitant
within that iron ring of trenches and
steel.
Germany is working with absolute
" safe reliance upon every disciplined
man fighting in the field.
1t is only necessary to give the or
der, and 1t Is obeyed.
The German at home accepts star
vation or semi-starvation or sixteen
working hours-and here you must
promise your men that they will work
only eight hours on national defense
work, and get double pay II they
nsk 1t.
But, most important Of all. you must
that Germans in the
trenches or out Of the trenches, wait
ing for the commander, rushing across
the bloody fields with shells exploding
around them, are so thoroughly dis
ciplined that nothing checks them,
or bewilders them.
To throw so-called reserves" abso-
lutely green men. against such forces
is almost murder-yet that is what the
the allies must do, and have done. and
are doing.
So much for the view Of an expert
enced American general familiar with
the wars problem. You know the
difference between a professional and
an amateur prizefighter. A profess
sional, inferior in character. morals.
or even physique, has a great advant-
age over the amateur. When he Is
knocked down he distinctly hears the
referee counting. knows enough forest
while he may, and gets up as the re-
feree counts nine.
The professional keeps his head In
the clinches." knows when and
where he should strike in the break
away. Two men being physically and
equal. one professional and
one an amateur the professional has
at least three hundred per cent the
advantage.
Germany. the German people, the
German army, the German common
soldiers are all professional fighters"
Every man has been disciplined