The American Volunteer

THE AMERICAN VOLUNTEER

European military men look with scorn upon the volunteer soldier. They regard the American volunteer as but an apology for a soldier, in fact. Nevertheless the volunteer is giving a pretty good account of himself at Manila as ha did some mouths ago at San Juan hill. He works under many disadvantages, of course, as compared with regulars. He is unaccustomed to the hardships and privations of the soldier's life and is comparatively inexperienced in military tactics. They acquire these requisites, however, rapidly. This is due to their superior intelligence. The Yankee is probably the most versatile of men. He certainly ought to be. In his veins flows the blood of all the most advanced peoples of the earth. He inherits the best points of them all. Because of this versatility he is able to adapt himself to varying conditions and requirements more easily and more quickly than the citizen of any other nation. Because of his superior intelligence and versatility he learns the business of soldiering in less time than the citizen of any other nation. The recent battles about Manila have demonstrated his knowledge of soldiering under trying circumstances. These volunteers.while they have seen but a few months of military training, have stormed trenches, assailed fortified positions and maintained the greatest steadiness in the open while fighting in a strange and wholly unknown country. They have shown that they know the soldier's habit of obedience to orders and a clear understanding of what is expected of them. The. nation has cause to be proud of their accomplishments and the spirit they have shown under the most trying circumstances. All this goes to prove that it is not necessary to maintain a great standing army in order to insure our national safety, and that our citizenship is a perfectly safe reservoir from which to draw our soldiery in event of national danger.