Part 17

[101] Mr. Garrison, Secretary of War, again represented to Congress at its last session that changes in the 12-inch gun carriages are absolutely necessary to give them an elevation of 15 degrees. This matter has been so well established that all military engineers are unanimous both as to the urgent need for the change and the excellent result that will follow.

[102] These are points lying south of the southern defenses of Boston Harbor, and so near them that modern siege guns planted there could fire into them at short range.

[103] The primary harbor defense batteries (12-inch, 10-inch and 8-inch guns and 12-inch mortars) are not emplaced for anything except sea-ward fire, nor should they be. To use them against land attack would be only a matter of desperation, as in the case here described. As a matter of fact, they would be rather inefficient against smaller guns that are more mobile and durable.

[104] “Firing at speed, the shots from a dozen guns shooting at successive intervals, would not have five seconds between them.”

[105] The tremendous air-compression in fortifications during gun-action almost always tears out parts of the general installation even in mere target practice. If fire-control installation, wiring, telephone systems, etc., are efficient only to the minimum degree, and there is no adequate reserve supply of material for repairs, they are certain to break down in any attack that is pressed with vigor. An attacked harbor-work is subjected to the most terrible destructive attempts that humanity has been able to devise.

[106] Long range investment with modern artillery serves the double purpose of commanding the ultimate target, and commanding all the territory in between, thus giving the artillerist possession of many miles of area.

[107] Financial Statistics, Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1914.

[108] In Brown versus the United States, the U. S. Supreme Court decreed that “war gives to the sovereign,” i.e. the conquering power, “full right to take the persons and confiscate the property of the enemy wherever found.--Humane mitigations may affect exercise of this right but cannot impair the right itself.”

[109] “The so-called exemption of private property from capture or seizure on land may be called almost nominal.”--Rear-Admiral Stockton, Outlines of International Law.

[110] Napoleon made Valencia pay $100,000 for the support of his army. Receipts were provided for originally when troops made requisitions, not necessarily to insure pay to the despoiled inhabitants, but merely to prevent unauthorized plundering.

[111] A universally accepted form of military rule, and distinguished from merely martial law.

[112] U. S. Census Bureau Report, 1914; also Boston City Manual.

[113] So certified to City Clerk, Boston, by Board of Assessors, June 30, 1914, exact number 123,657.

[114] Statistics of Cities of the United States, 1914.

[115] From “Instructions for Government of Armies of the United States in the Field” (with exception of statement as to specific punishment for infraction. Punishment mentioned here, however, is such as all military authorities will claim the right to inflict.)

[116] The right of quartering troops on the inhabitants of enemy country is unquestioned and universally exercised. Equally universal is the military commanders’ right to punish treachery by death.

[117] “Complete conquest carries with it all rights of former government.”--U. S. Supreme Court.

[118] Benjamin Harris’ “Publick Occurrences,” suppressed after one issue.

[119] There is an immense literature on military law, and every army contains officers who have taken degrees in law, for the purpose of expounding and administering it.

[120] The legal and technical correctness of all acts is of extreme importance in the peace settlements.

[121] All authority in conquered country is only by and with the authority of the military conqueror. His power, practically, is limited only by his motives of policy or kindness.

[122] This requisition is taken almost verbatim from a requisition issued by a belligerent army in the field. It is an accepted and acknowledged principle of war that the conqueror may force the enemy to pay his expenses to as large an extent as possible. A commander may waive the right, but it is held unimpaired.

[123] This decision covered a case that arose during the Civil War, and was cited by the Law Office, Division of Insular Affairs, on several occasions to fortify United States procedure after the Spanish-American War.

[124] A literal extract from the Sedition Act (No. 292, etc.) of the Philippine Commission, except that the act provides for specific imprisonment and fine.

[125] So laid down by nearly all writers on military law who touch on this subject.

[126] This principle was laid down in regard to territory subjected to military occupation by the United States during the war with Mexico. The United States claimed (and sparingly exercised) the right to court martial and execute as rebels certain leaders of an insurrection against the military government in New Mexico, 1847-8.

[127] “In many instances the deficiency has reached such a figure as to leave militia organizations such in name only.”--Page 206, last report, General Mills, U. S. A.

[128] Table No. 9, Report, Division of Militia Affairs, U. S. A., 1914.

[129] Range of four miles.

[130] Page 231, Report on militia field artillery, General Mills, U. S. A., 1914.

[131] Table 9, militia cavalry statistics, Division of Militia Affairs, U. S. A. Annual Report, 1914.

[132] From statistics, gathered before the present European War, of the armament then owned by at least four of the great Powers.

[133] From statistics, gathered before the present European War, of the armament then owned by at least four of the great Powers.

[134] A literal transcript of the report of two medical officers on the conditions existing among good militia troops who were ordered out for maneuvers distinctly specified as war maneuvers to be conducted under war conditions.

[135] This figure is purposely placed below what is actually expected. During the Connecticut maneuvers, 1909, the straggling was a subject for comment among both militia and regular officers, though the troops did well considering their softness. One officer reported that the straggling amounted to 15 to 25 per cent. of some regiments.

[136] From the report of an umpire at a maneuver under war conditions. He reported that the batteries of both sides fired into woods actually occupied by their own troops.

[137] So reported by a General of Militia, as the result of his observations in field practice.

[138] Schedule laid down by General von Bernhardi as the maximum time that should be expended by properly trained troops under experienced officers.

[139] Army heads have called the attention of Congress and the public repeatedly to the fact that officers cannot possibly be prepared for the complex work of handling an army if they never get an opportunity to learn by actual experience. The post system is to blame to a considerable extent.... Remarks about commissary troubles in this paragraph are based on actual occurrences in the field, as set forth in an official report.

[140] From “The Army in Action.”

[141] Watervliet, situated near Troy, N. Y., is one of the most important Government gun factories in the United States. It produces the 12, 14 and 16-inch all steel rifled guns for the harbor defenses and is fitted out with enormously expensive machinery for making many other different types of ordnance. Its exposed situation, under our present conditions of defenselessness, has long been a cause for anxiety.

[142] It has been pointed out often that within a radius of less than a hundred miles around New York City there is a large percentage of the works and factories on which the Government depends for much of its war material.

[143] Vessels actually building in places named when the last annual edition of the Navy Year Book was published.

[144] Strength of total force, including all individuals, October 1, 1914, 10,740. It is held that New York’s conformation, long and narrow, makes it an unusually easy city to control, as it is possible to prevent mobs from combining, and trouble can be confined to limited areas.

[145] Bureau of Census, U. S., 1914.

[146] Census Office Tabular Statement issued in 1911. Figures are for all boroughs of Greater New York, and include only establishments conducted under factory system. Building and similar industries and small establishments producing less than $500 worth of products a year are not counted.

[147] Paragraph 373, Acts Punished As War Treason: Rules of Land Warfare, published for the information and government of the armed land forces of the United States, April 25, 1914.

[148] “A town surrounded by detached forts is considered jointly with such forts as an indivisible whole, as a defended place. A place that is occupied by a military force or through which such a force is passing, is a defended place.”--Bombardments, Assaults and Sieges, Rules of Land Warfare, U. S. A.

[149] Office of Naval Intelligence, July 1, 1914.

[150] Practical completion of battery construction and armament, power plants, fire control, searchlight installation and supply of ammunition reported by Chief of Coast Artillery, September 19, 1914.

[151] Congress has appropriated comparatively little for the needs of Guantanamo Harbor.

[152] Usually one of the first orders given to the occupants of occupied territory.

[153] The practice laid down for our own army and followed in the Insular campaigns.

[154] Paragraph 301, Rules of Land Warfare, U. S. A., 1914.

[155] This is one of the rules accepted among all nations and followed by all armies.

[156] Issued during the Russo-Japanese War in Manchuria and cited by recent writers as acknowledged precedents.

[157] “While a military government continues as an instrument of warfare, used to promote the objects of invasion, its powers are practically boundless.”--Magoon, Law of Civil Government under Military Occupation, U. S. Bureau of Insular Affairs.

[158] Table 4, 13th Census, Volume 8. The Metropolitan District, as referred to in this sense, comprises Greater New York and the New Jersey manufacturing counties that contain Newark, Bayonne, Paterson, Hackensack, Passaic, Rutherford, etc.

[159] Spaight, an authority, says that “practically everything under the sun” may be requisitioned and cites the case of a boot-jack being demanded for army use. See quotation and rulings of U. S. Army.

[160] Under Hague Rule, Article LIII, it is held that “everything susceptible of military use” may be requisitioned, and modern army practice defines this as meaning anything from telegraph wire to canal boats.

[161] Not a large sum as compared with some imposts laid on quite small and unimportant towns in wars during the past century. One such levy was $1,000,000 from one town in one day, according to European writers.

[162] See case of seizure by Major General Otis of $100,000 from Philippine bankers, being money owned by insurgents and payable on presentation of a draft held by insurgents. Report, Charles E. Magoon, Law Officer, Division of Insular Affairs, 1902.

[163] List of non-assessable Federal property, N. Y., 1914.

[164] At present it is considered that one military flying machine in two months is good speed of production.

[165] Result of inquiry made by U. S. Army after tests on Texas border had developed the high value of motor trucks for war.

[166] Orders issued by War Department, March 6, 1911, for concentration at San Antonio, Texas, of maneuver division of three infantry brigades, one field artillery brigade, an independent cavalry brigade and the necessary auxiliary troops. Strength should have been 15,669 officers and men. On March 31 the division mustered only 11,254 men. On April 30 it had reached a strength of 12,598. On May 30 it numbered 12,809. It never reached its full required strength and it did not reach its maximum actual strength until three months after it had been ordered out. On Feb. 21 and 24, 1913, three brigades of the second division were ordered to mobilize at Texas City and Galveston. This force did not reach its maximum strength till June 30, 1913. See Report of Major General Carter, U. S. A.

[167] Table 26, page 262, Report, Chief of Division of Militia Affairs, U. S. A., October 1, 1914.

[168] Census of Manufactures, U. S., 1910.

[169] Report, Brigadier General A. L. Mills, U. S. A., 1914.

[170] Secretary of War Garrison says: “It will require six months at the lowest possible estimate to equip, organize, train, drill and make ready our volunteers.”

[171] Census Bureau, Volume 8.

[172] From Tax Lists, New York City and Boston, and assessable values of New England, U. S. Census Bureau.

[173] Many so-called “non-intercourse acts” were passed during the Civil War. These authorized the President both to prohibit and to license and permit intercourse and trade with belligerent territory. Under these acts President Lincoln permitted the purchase of cotton in the south, and his procedure was upheld by the United States Supreme Court on the ground that “the United States has power to permit intercourse with an enemy during the time of war.”

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Typographical error corrected by the etext transcriber:

one of the men in Wash-ton=> one of the men in Washington {pg 156}