The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1918-04-29
BY MARTIN GREEN.

Win American fOfCeS III france,
April 27,--War. rs 1t is conducted to-
day, is little more than disciplinary
manual labor. The movement, the ro-
nance. the thrills of warfare that We
have read about in our histories have
given way TO routine. system and mo-
notony. This statement has been made
many times. but it will bear repeating.
because the oftener it is repeated the
more potent will be its influence in i'm
pressing mankind with n great truth
namely, that war is n foolish waste of
lives. money and energy, Everybody
has n faint sort Of an idea along that
line. only those who get into actual
contact with warfare can realize that 1t
Is simply organized disorder, synchron-
lied dissipation.
The soldier of the past. who was cs-
sentialiy a fighting man and spent all
his time fighting, has been displaced
because OF modern invention and de-
velopment by the soldier who spends
one-f fifth OF his time fighting or walt
ing for the other fellow to start n fight
and four fifths of his time between
making ready to fight and toiing Ia
boriously at multiplicity of tasks
made necessary by the fact that an
other soldier is off somewhere fighting.
All the soldiers in Belgium and
France are not fighting. There isn't
room for them along the batteline.
Very few of those who are alive have
ever seen n German soldier except the
German who has been captured. and
very few German soldiers alive have
ever seen n free soldier of the allied
forces. Modern warfare. as IL Is OK
emplified on the western front, consists
Of each side digging into the ground,
and trying to blow the other side out.
The more securely either side digs
in. the harder it Is for the other side
TO blow him out. Accordingly the blow
ing out process requires more and
more preparation as the difficulty in
creases. The rrodigious tasks of labor
which are being accomplished by the
soldiers on both sides at this time are
inconceivable to persons who are not
familiar with them. We know the
Germans are working just as hard as
we are because they have to IL they
want to hold up their end. The Ger
mans and the. allies are fighting the
same kind of warfare on the western
front.
All modern armies are armies Of
lahorers, mechanics, clerks, stcnog-
raphers. office boys who shave daily,
and executives of varying capacity
and power. After the novelty Of
travel and new surroundings has
worn off, the soldier finds himself
working harder than he ever worked
at home at a task familiar 10 him II
he Is a specialized man, or at "A task
he would never dream Of taking up
in civil life II he has failed to make
himself valuable as a specialist That
is all there Is to modern war. all the
soldier can expect Of the future, IL the
transient glory of being a hero in his
old home town. The modern soldier
Is n better and more patriotic man
than the soldier of time past, who
lived In the exhiaration of combat all
the time. The modern soldier, no
matter what his ideas Oh war may be
when he goes into the game. speedily
finds that he has signed up for n
period OF drudgery, and 1t Ia all TO his
honor Ind his manhood that he does
not complain.
II I have been understood as trying
to show that all the glamour and ro-
nance and excitement Of warfare has
been eliminated. crave the pardon
Of the reader There is n branch OF
the service which embraces glamour.
romance and cxcitement-thc air serv-
Ice. The flying man Is no drudge
Each officer who flies has 80 men
pilot or observer. he lives life oil
ease when he In not in the air which
IL quite right. The flying man is
the spectacular hero of nodcrn war.
fare-the aristocrat of Twentieth Cen
fury combat. He is more than that;
he is the hope Of the armies Of the
allies, because authorities are pretty
generally in agreement on the cOnclu-
sion that IL we are TO whip the Ger
man we must whip him in the air.
Much can be written about the fly
inK man. | haven't seen enough o.
him yet TO do him justice. At this
writing the American flying men ir
France, attached to the American
army. are in the position Of brass