AMERICA'S INTERVENTION—THE MILITARY SIDE.
" The question presented by the letters you have sent me is the most momentous which has ever been offered to my contemplation since that of Independence. . . . While Europe is labouring to become the domicile of Despotism our endeavour should be to make our Hemi- sphere that of Freedom. One Nation most of all could disturb us in this pursuit ; she now offers to lead, aid, and accompany us. By acceding to her proposition we . . . bring her mighty weight into the scale of free government and emancipate a Continent at one stroke. . . . Great Britain is the Nation . . . and with her on our side we need not fear the whole world. With her we should cherish a cordial friendship and nothing would tend more to knit affec- tions than to be fighting once more side by side in the same cause."
THE glowing and prophetic words which we have placed at the head of this article were written in 1823 by Jefferson, who may be described as the patron saint of the Democratic Party in America. With consummate appropri- ateness, it has been reserved for a Democratic President to make more real than ever before the humane and liberating association of the Anglo-Saxon world which Jefferson foresaw as though in a vision. We explained three weeks ago the cir- cumstances in which Jefferson wrote his memorable exhorta- tion to Monroe. Monroe had invited his predecessor in the Presidency to say whether he held fast to Washington's principle of " no entangling affiances," or whether he thought it safe to act on Canning's proposal that Britain and America together should resist the ty fanny of the Holy Alliance. We know the result. The Doctrine which bears Monroe's name has 'ever since been a cardinal instrument of American policy, though it would be absurd to pretend that it has not co-existed with much occasional enmity against Britain—enmity that has brought the two countries to the brink of war more than once. Now the Anglo-Saxon association is revived, and more than revived. It is placed upon a new foundation which we trust will never crumble away, but will be the support of a united policy to cleanse the world from every- thing in international relations that is mean, unmanly, cruel, false, and tyrannical. How profoundly apt are Jefferson's words ! One reads and re-reads them with growing admira- tion of their insight and rightness. Once again " Europe is labouring to become the domicile of Despotism." Once again the question for Americans is whether their own hemi- sphere shall be " that of Freedom," for nothing is more certain than that if Germany won this war she would visit her wrath on America with a venom and a pitilessness of which the majority of Americans can have no conception.
There is much more to do now, however, than to " emanci- pate a Continent at one stroke." It is the whole world of civilized men, with their codes and customs built up painfully through the centuries, which needs to be emancipated from a foul threat of universal materialism and force. Very truly did President Wilson say that the war is seen now to be a struggle between democracy and autocracy. No longer will rational beings consent to have their homes, their happiness, their fortunes, and their consciences placed at the disposal of some ridiculous self-appointed arbiter of fate who trades in preposterous phrases, histrionic attitudes, megalomaniac pretensions, and deceives himself and his people (or both) into believing that these things are signs of a Divine authority. Such lethal buffoonery must be swept away, and the United States is going to help us to do it. Now that America has taken this decision our lips are unsealed. We could not say before how much we hoped that the whole Anglo-Saxon world might stand or charge together for freedom because we should have seemed to be trying to drag a friend into a squabble which he had announced to be no concern of his. There are few more disreputable actions than that. But most earnestly did we hope that the day would come when our friend would say freely of his own accord that the struggle in which we were engaged was the concern of every honest man. The day has come at last. We welcome it with joy as one of the most significant and one of the most auspicious not only in the history of the United States but in our own. The Spectator , which has professed an unalterable sympathy with the United States, sometimes in the face of protest here, and a belief in the essential rightness of the feeling of the American people as a whole even in the darkest times, may be allowed to con- gratulate itself on the occasion of a long-drawn dream coming true. " Nothing," said Jefferson, " would tend more to knit affections than to be fighting once more side by side in the same cause." His memory went hack to the pre-Revolu- tionary days. To him the thought of British and American so-operation was familiar. It had been interrupted only by the obstinacy of George III. and North and by the war of 1812. His feelings are exactly ours. Let the Stars and Stripes wave with the Union Jack wherever there is somebody or something to save from a bloodthirsty tyranny. They should never part company again so long as the world needs to be protected from the German threat against the quietness, decency, and humanity loved by all self-ruling people. It is upon the military realities of our own flesh and blood joining with us in the greatest of all crusades that we wish to dwell for a few momenta. We sincerely trust that it may be possible for at least one American unit, say a brigade for a start, to conic over and fight in France. Naval co-operation, finance, the supply of new shipping, a great increase of muni- tions—all these things are necessary, and any one of them or all of them may well be more important materially than the sending of a comparatively small military force fairly soon to the Western front. But not one of them could be compared with the sentimental effect of British and American troops appearing side by side in the field. We attach the greatest importance to this. A single brigade would be a visible pledge and bond of union. There need be no great delay. Now that the American authorities can seize German shipping they could send a brigade over in the Vaterland ' alone. The delight of the British people would be unbounded if the brigade could come to England first. American soldiers could have but a dim image of the reception that awaits them. We venture to say that if an American brigade marched through the streets of London before re-embarking for France the houses would almost crack with the cheering. Every one would know in his heart that one of the greatest events in history was being there and then represented. Americans have co- operated with us in Samoa and in China, and those days are not forgotten, but they scarcely count beside the tremendous and vital enterprise upon which we are now embarked together. It may be that the American rifles arc unsuited to be used in company with the rifles of the Allies. That would not matter at all. A brigade could easily be armed and equipped over here. It is the moral value of the appearance of an American unit in the field, sent officially by the American Government, that we arc thinking of. Suppose the brigade consisted of four battalions, there might be one battalion of Regulars, one of Marines, and two of the Militia or National Guard. We say only one battalion of Regulars, for every one knows that the American Regulars have always been in effect the principal police force, and the very nature of their duties would keep the bulk of the force at home in such times as these. At all events, they would have to stay at home till the military authorities can see their way more clearly. We want a brigade quickly for the reasons we have mentioned. No doubt if the war dragged on the brigade would grow. It might become a division, just as our Brigade of Guards has become a division, and then it might become an Army. For let us be sure of this : that now America has come into the war to help to save civilization she is not going to stay her hand till the cause is won. Germany never made a greater mistake, among all her crass mistakes, than when she provoked America into war. She thought the Americans would go on balancing till it was too late for them to do anything effectual. What also is on the way to find out now is that the Americans have all the obstinacy and sticking qualities of their origin. Civilization cannot now lose. If the war lasts five years more, the Aineri- cans will be in at the finish. They are roused.
We look for great things because the American people know what they are capable of, and feel what they owe to themselves. But no one here who understands the military situation is blind to the fact that at first the United States may have to go through very difficult times when practically all her efforts will be required at home. If it should happen that no troops can be sent to Europe for a longtime—with the exception, we hope, of the brigade we have spoken of—there is no one here who will misjudge American intentions. The reasons will be perfectly understood and appreciated. We all recognize that America has to create an Army, and that the troops she already has, and more, will be needed for home defence. We imagine that the hyphenated Americans will for the most part prove that they are good Americans (in other words, civilized men) after all. But we may be sure thi t German agents will try to make trouble everywhere. They have already prepared the seed-bed in their own inimitable manner. In Mexico they have probably schemed and in- trigued to the top of their bent. If we reckon _that the Germans in Mexico,together with some German-Americans who may be persuaded to cross the Rio Grande, contrive to raise an army fifty or sixty thousand strong, it is obvious that the existing American Army will have its work cut out to protect the border towns as well as to keep order and guard vital points all over the United States. And yet when we remember that there are nearly eight million persons of German origin in the United States a German army of fifty or sixty thousand does not seem beyond the range of prob- ability. The condition of the American fighting forces in 1915 was set forth fully in Mr. Huidekoper's recent work, The Military Unpreparedness of the United States. He says :- " If war were declared in the near future, the number of troops now in the United States upon whom the defence of this country would devolve would be limited to :—
Officers. Enlisted Men. Total.
Mobile Army . 1,989 34,798 30,787 Coast Artillery 588 15,647 16,235 Organized Militia 8,323 119,087 127,410 Grand Total 10,900 169,532 180,432 And that is absolutely all. The only recourse left would be to call out volunteers, and to organize, train, equip, and prepare them to take the field would require, at the lowest possible estimate, six months. . .. It has also been conclusively shown that the United States does not possess sufficient ammunition for an army of 145,522 infantrymen for four days' fighting nor enough artillery ammunition to last our 634 field guns for two days—not to mention innumerable other items iu which we aro lamentably deficient."
On June 1st, 1915, the Reserve of the Regular Army amounted to exactly seventeen men.
No doubt more men have been trained, and munitions have been appreciably increased, since Mr. Huidekoper wrote, but people here should understand that the Americans cannot be expected to help much in the field for a considerable time. They are to be judged by what they do in the circumstances, and not according to some impossible standard ignorantly invented. But we still hope for a brigade quite soon. We may be told that American sympathy runs stronger with the French, and even with the new Russian democracy, than with ourselves, and that if American troops come to Europe they will not come to the British front. Frankly, we do not believe it. We believe that an American brigade would feel ten times more at home with people of their own flesh and blood who talk their own language. That was certainly the feeling in China. At all events, we shall continue to hope for the realization of our dream.
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