Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1927-02-10


ganized to protect themselves and
families. The few men in the state
that had any knowledge of military
training became immensely valuable,
and it was a mighty task for them to
organize the unframed citizenry to
repel the savages and prevent them
from sweeping the whites out of the
state. The unpreparedness of Mime
sofa cost the lives of many of it's
citizens.
The statement of Editor Petersen
and his colleagues that the next war
will be fought in the air does not al
ter the question. Whether. fought in
the air, on the land, or on the sea,
the Importance of preparedness is not
affected. There were a lot of aero
planes, balloons, and dirigible air.
ships used in the World war, but it
lis conceded that their work would
have been almost entirely negligible
without the infantry and artillery.
All of the great movements of the
war were decided by the latter arms
of the military service 1t was the
infantry backed by the artillery that
stopped the German march on Paris
and finally drove them back until
they were ready to surrender. Sc
this theory that all future wars will
be decided in the air is the dream of
Missionaries who do not realize that it
takes solid man power in the shape
of infantry and artillery to take and
hold positions. The Germans had
plenty of aeroplanes, but when they
found their land troops were being
gradually overcome by the tremen-
dous pressure of the masses of infan-
try and artillery of the allies they
knew the end was in sight and were
ready to capitulate. Outside of few
spectacular stunts the air forces were
of little use except to keep the mass
es of men fighting on the ground
posted on the movements of the enc
my.
And many of the lives of the boys
in the U. S. forces were sacrificed
because of the lack of training Whole
companies were wiped out by misun-
derstanding signals, getting in the
wrong position, marching in solid I'M
its and being wiped out by a single
shell, etc., according to accounts of
the war. Many were even killed by
the barrage of their own artillery
through misunderstanding arising
from ignorance of military tactics.
Our contention is that preparedness,
military training and knowledge of
tactics does not cause wars, but on
the contrary might have the opposite
effect. A we'll prepared nation is
not apt to be the target of aggressors.
Switzerland is one of the best pre-
pared and trained nations in the
world according to their population
but they have been comparatively
free from war, although surrounded
by warning nations.
Other nations do not have any par
ticularly love for the United States.
Our late allies, the British and the
French want to quarrel with us about
their war debts. Our national gov
eminent is treating the third largest
nation in point of population, Russia
with contempt and insulting them at
every opportunity. Russia has 165
millions of people and occupies ter
ritory five times greater in area than
the United States. Germany does
not love us for our part in the World
war, Mexico and Central and South
American countries have not forgot
ten that we took half of MexicO's
territory away from her by force of
arms. China Classics the United
States with her European oppressors
whom she is driving from her coun-
try now. All this does not look like
a love feast of the nations in the
very near future.
Russia, the great cooperative COM
monwealth, which declares against
wars in it's constitution, and whose
leaders declare that wars are unjusti-
fed except as a measure of defense
against aggression, has the largest
army in the world, one Million men
are trained in military tactics. There