IS© THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



German officials have claimed that military service "provides a 

 special advantage to developing manhood in its compulsory exercise, 

 enforced habits of discipline, unescapable stimulus to patriotism and 

 general moral control." In the words of a German general, quoted by 

 Professor Kellogg, 



military service is not injurious to the body, but healthful, not depressing to 

 mind and spirit, but inspiring. 



Some of these alleged virtues will not appear as such under other 

 and perhaps more truthful names. But admitting all that may be 

 said, the armies exist for war ; their members " especially selected and 

 zealously cared for" are chosen for sacrifice, and the more worthy the 

 sacrifice the greater the permanent loss to the nation. When a man 

 of character and ability, says Professor Kellogg, 



gives his life, in war, to his nation, he gives more than himself. He gives the 

 long line, the ever widening wedge of those who should be his descendants. In 

 the long run these may have greater potential value than any political end 

 they have helped to accomplish. 



The most economical and most positive factor in human progress is good 

 breeding. Eace deterioration comes chiefly from its opposite, bad breeding. 

 Militarism encourages bad breeding. 



Despite all delusive phrases to the contrary, the maintenance of an 

 army is a preparation for war and a step toward war and not toward peace. 

 Do governments, or will they, maintain this blessing of military service for 

 the health and eugenic advantage of their people? Is it not done solely from 

 the stimulus of expected war? Is it not done solely with the full expectancy 

 and deliberate intention of offering this particularly selected and cared for 

 part of the population to the exposure of wholesale mutilation and death? 

 This death is to come, if at all, before this extra-rigorous part of the popu- 

 lation has taken its part in race propagation, the precise function the per- 

 formance of which the race most needs from it. 



Spain 

 The Spain of to-day is not the Spain of 1493 to whom the Pope 

 assigned half the seas of the world. Old Spain drooped long ago, ex- 

 hausted with intolerance, sea power and empire. Now that modern 

 Spain has been deprived of the last vestige of imperial control, she 

 is slowly recuperating on a foundation of industry and economy. 



In 1630, the Augustinian friar, La Puente, thus wrote of the fate 

 of Spain: 



scientifically enlightened country, the deaths from disease in camp were eight 

 to one from the incidents of battle. But we could do better now. And so 

 could France and England. 



In fact, the modern humane war against disease has made life much safer 

 for the soldier. That is to be admitted. But there has occurred so far but 

 one conspicuous radical exception to the general rule of a much greater per- 

 centage of deaths from disease than from bullets and bayonets in war time. 

 That, of course, is the record of the Japanese armies in the Busso-Japanese war. 

 The records of the recent war in the Balkan States are like those of a century 

 ago. 



