Arizona republican., 1918-05-31
Where the People
 May Have Hearing
TRAINING AND IMPROVISATION
The Editor Republican.

The EQltor RepuDllcan.
 Dear Sir: I want to take issue with you in regard to some of the points in your editorial of this date. I do not agree with you at all in your at tempt at comparison between the ef- fectiveness of the soldiers who have undergone intensive and systematic military training from boyhood and those who have had only short period of emergency training" as applied to show that it has generally been the British and not the French against whom the Germans have made their gains. so that the curious curves and angles in the black line show the bulg- ing tendency where it has been held by the British. It seems to me that simpler explanation is sufficient-the British have lost most because they have been most attacked. Let me re- mind you that if the British did not hold on the Fist of March, even the French could not hold Mt. kemmel much later.
 It is probably too early yet to make 1t safe for anyone, especially anyone on this side, to institute comparisons 1 see no satisfactory evidence yet, for instance, for your idea that the Anzac showed up better than his insular | is certain that he suffered from the same trouble as his insular brother the lack of competent and experienced officers for the higher commands and to quite the same extent. As it is so long since, presume that the plain truth can be told now about it, and the plain truth is that the AnZacs, with all their splendid gallantry, at the begin ming at Gallipoli showed a good many ! of the usual traits of an undiSciplined mob There were too many men, among them who, when they were very thirsty, thought it necessary to cut holes in the hose carrying forward the drinking water; too many men who, when they were very tired, thought it proper to call it Q day and knock off so that the Turks got time to recover. Competent and determined command CTS would have forced them forward to the very limit of human endurance at such a time, for it is evident now | that only in the first week or two did | the chance of victory exist.
 Even in regard to their splendid gail lantry, 1 doubt if cold figures would show that they faced more bullets than their insular brothers. At any rate, I do know that my old company in Scottish regiment, before the affair was half over, had lost in killed and wounded S5 per cent of its effectives- and was still ready to fight.
 1 While it Is true that social position used to count for great deal in secur- | ing high command in the British army, l believe that most Americans exag- gerate that matter. At any rate. it was in the British, not the French, army that the highest position till recently was held by a man who started life as stable boy, Sir William Robertson. And, though the French army, like the French people, is remarkably free from snobbishness (the French have no word l in their language which exactly trans lates that eminently English word), am inclined to think that politics and prejudice play a larger role there than in the English army. It was in the French, not in the British, army that we had the Dreyfus case.
 With all the respect due to men who have demonstrated their worth in the most crucial of tests, wnose proven worth alone enables some of us to go to sleep tonight, I venture to hint that even the French officer is not without his faults, and that compulsory mili- tary training is not without it's draw backs. When you hint at the necessity for compulsory military training, want to remind you that France, be- fore the war, was the very home of soldiers who now fight so heroically, whose discipline is so admirable are the same men who, before the war; in marching past, instead of the "Marseil- laise," sometimes would sing "L'Inter- nationale;;" who, before the war
 through their labor organizations
 made strenuous efforts, year after
 year, to arrive at an understanding
 with the German Social Democrats to prevent war; who fight now all the
 more bravely because they know they
 have no thought of conquest or domi-
 nation, and with the hope in theil
 hearts that victory once won, the peo-
 pies of Europe may be able to get rid
 of militarism altogether
 My impression always has been that l good officers, competent non- coms-
 and a mere sprinkling of oldsters tt
 steady them, young men willing ant keen. can be licked into excellent in
 fantrymen in a very short time indeed l The artilleryman is in different cate. gory, and a really good cavalrymar | can only be the product of long train.
 ing. Officers, no matter how good tn, material (and know from my own ex l perience that we have the very pick O
 Young America) take time to make
 Captains and colonels can not be i'm provised. The amateur in anything
 has to be very good indeed to quit