Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1923-10-11

OF the Rhine" predlctS that the next war VIII De
a war particularly of chemistry. He dwells on
the possibilities of the combination of gas and
aircraft and he warns that prohibition or agree
ment is going to stop the use Of such weapons
when national existence is believed to be at stake
But it is Col j. f. c. Fuller, D. S. O.. who car
ries this talk of chemical to its logical con-
cluson in his new book, "The Reformation OF
War" He is an Englishman and professional
soldier who knows war both in theory and prac-
tice. His book gives us pen pictures of war as 1T
will be fought when the fighting airplane, tanks
and gas reach the full maturity of their terrible
power
Colonel Fuller's basic proposition is that 'war
is of the inevitable" He has the utmost contempt
for peace talk, disarmament propositions, and the
outlawing of certain weapons and certain methods
of fighting. He believes that when war comes
nations will use the most efficient weapon avail
able be it what it may. He asserts that the ira
ditonal soldier is doomed, that in the coming war
our present-day armies and naves will be value
less, that the World war will be the last of its
kind Up to the end of the last great struggle,
he says of two dimensions The air
plane made war three dimensonal. What is the
use of armies fighting if airplanes can leap the
armies and carry the war to the heart of the
enemy's country. The airplane however, is mere
means Of transportation for gas the most efficient
means of destruction the world has yet seen. He
says 1900 bullets minute can be fired in shrapnel
from a field gun and then says
'Gas is, however, composed of chemical mole-
cules each of which can disable; consequently,
the projectiles of a gas bombardment cannot be
reckoned by thousands per minute, but by thou
sands of trillions. In fact SO immense number
that it is not even necessary to know the position
of the target; all that is necessary is to know in
what area it is, and then to inundate this area.
Unlike bullet, the effect of gas does not cease
once the force generated to propel it is spent for
,s10 h11I1n iC fn0 Yo01n1
alive and may remain alive for days after gas
has been projected If the reader can imagine a
machine gun which can fire millions of bullets
a second, each bullet drifting on after the force
of the original discharge has been spent creeping
through trees and houses, wandering over walls
and into shelters and dugouts then he will have
some idea how gas can be used to economic mill
tary time"
Colonel Fuller says the traditional soldier" will
be succeeded by the war scientist whose STRAIT
egg will be to attack the nerves rather than the
bodies of the enemy. ''The brute force theory Of
traditional warfare" will go; in it's place will be
"the direct attack on the source of all military
power-the nerves and will of the civil popu-
lation." He says:
"a nation which destroys the economic resources
of it's enemy, destroys its eventual markets. and
thus wounds ITSELF War must entail some loss
but the less this loss is the greater will be the
victory; consequently, the military object of a
nation is not to kill and destroy, but to enforce
the policy of its government with the least pos
sble loss of honor life and property If the enemy
can be compelled to accept the hostile policy with
out BATTLE much the better. If he opposes it
by military force then it should never be forgot
ten that the strength Of this force rests on the
will of the government which employs it. and that
in its turn this will rests the will of the nation
which this government represents. If the will of
the nation cannot be directly attacked then must
%I,o he
the past this will has been attacked by attacking
the flesh of the soldiers, and consistent has this
been, that the idea has arisen that the military
object of war is to kin and destroy Thus, in the
popular and military imaginations the means have
obscured the end consequently the prevailing idea
of all parties in the recent was destruction,
to destroy each other, and so blinded were they
by the means that they could not see that in the
very act they were destroying themselves, not only
during the war, but in the peace which must some
day follow the
81 believe that the world is slowly learning this