Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1918-03-13
Was Originated i'm France i'm 1893.
The Country Had Just Passed
Through Long and Bloody
War.
APPEARED HERE TIME
WAR BETWEEN STATES
At Beginning of War in 1861 Our
Whole Regular Force Was But
$4,000 Men.

hdu JUST pdSSeu through the lCug
and bloody war Of the French revo-
luton, which the molarchs of Eur
ope had banded together to crush.
France, under Napoleon, had come
forth victorious, but her army was
exhausted, and it was evident that
some new system of recruiting would
be necessary, as volunteer enlistment
no longer sufficed.
1t was then that General Jourdan
brought forth and passed the law es-
tablishing conscription. Since then
it has been the basis of all Frerch
military legislation and, to a certain
extent, of that of all other countries.
1t was through the terrible pow
er of conscription~that Napoleon was
enabled to carry on the gigantic
wars which characterized his reign
and by means of it, after losing in
the SHOWS of Russia the largest army
that up till that time had ever been
put into the field, to reappear few
months later with another army al
most as large.
Out of necessity the other nations
were forced to follow Frances eX-
ample, and conscription became gen
eral.
Under the French regime every
citizen between the ages of twenty
AID twenty-five was liable to seryiee
for five years. Prussia, however, still
further developed the powers of con-
scription by reducing the period Of
service in the ranks and passing her
GENTLY trained into reserve force,
thus by degrees training her whole
population.
This latter system, which was con-
sidered as one of the most far-reach-
ing and important events of the last
century, owed its origin to the Condi-
tions imposed on Prussia by Napo-
leon at the treaty of Tilsit, whereby
Prussia was restricted to a standing
army of $4,000 men. She kept to the
letter of the law by maintaining her
army at the prescribed number, but
her trained citizen reserve force was
limited only by the population of the
country.
The military history of the United
States is as remarkable as the rise
and rapid growth of the nation it.
self. In 1890, as fixed by an act OF
congress, the rank and file of our
army amounted to 1,216 men, and
in 1914 an English expedition with
only $500 men was able to seize
and burn Washington.
Conscription first made it's ap-
pearance here at the time of the war
between the states. At the beginning
of the war in 1851 our whole regu-
lar force was but $4,000 men. At
first the northern army was increas-
ed by volunteer enlistment, but the
unexpected prolongation of the war
proved this method too slow to re-
plenish the waste of the armies, and
in 1868 the government resorted to a
draft.
The first attempt to carry 1t out
met with forcible resistance and led
to a serious riot in the city of New
York, which lasted several days. All
opposition, however, was put down
and the draft executed with all possi-
BILE forbearance and justice. Exemp-
tions and substitute purchases were
so freely given il the north that the
draft had little effect except as a
stimulus to the states in bringing 10
full strength their quotas for volun-
teers by voting bountieS.
In the south, however, conscrip-
ton was sweeping from the first, and
toward the end of the war it be-
came omnivorous. Every man be-
tween the ages of seventeen and hf-
ty-fiv& was legally liable to service,
the only excuse being physical inca
pacity.
The total number OF men called
under arms by the government of the
United States between April, 1851
and April, 1865, amounted to more
than 2,75O.O00, nearly half OF this
number being raised by conscription.
If TO this we add the 100000 men
from the southern states the total
armed force of the country at that
time amounted to almost 4.00O,OoO'
drawn from a population of only 32,-